The ex-Mufti of Palestine may be placed by the United Nations War Crimes Commission on its lists of war criminals next week, if the commission complies with a request made by the Yugoslav Government, it was learned here today.
It is the intention of the Yugoslav Government to ask the ex-Mufti’s extradition from France to Yugoslavia for trial there, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency was told. A representative of the Yugoslav Government in London will submit to the commission a file of documents which will leave little doubt in the minds of its members that the listing of the ex-Mufti as a war criminal is long overdue.
The Yugoslav case against the ex-Mufti is entirely constructed on evidence collected inside Yugoslavia and is not concerned with his past or his activities elsewhere. It reveals the aid which the ex-Mufti gave Hitler by recruiting Mosloms in Yugoslavia to fight against the Allied armies and “to avenge themselves against the Christian population in Serbia.”
The ex-Mufti, who is now living in luxury in a Paris villa, seems to entertain the hope that he will manage to be. forgotten until one day when his star may shine again. A recent informal suggestion by the British that the French Government surrender him to Britain elicited an evasive answer from France. At the same time, British authorities seem eager to have as little trouble with the ex-Mufti as possible. Some persons in London argue that he is not a war criminal and can be accused merely of conducting “subersive activities.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
