A hearing on extradition of Albert Belmut Rauca, sought by West Germany for war crimes as a former SS Nazi camp commandant, was postponed from September 20 to October 12 in federal court here.
Rauca was arrested here June 17 for alleged participation in the wartime murders of 10,500 Jews in the Kovno ghetto in Lithuania. He was arrested at the request of the West German government.
Rauca’s defense attorneys said they would rely, in their efforts to bar his extradition, on a section of Canada’s new rights charter, which states that every Canadian citizen has a right to remain in Canada. They said they will contend at the deportation hearing that this means a Canadian citizen cannot be extradited to another country.
David Matas, a Winnipeg attorney active in the Canadian Jewish Congress, which had joined in a futile appeal for denial of bail to Rauca, said his case represented the first time Canada has acted to help extradite an alleged war criminal.
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