Laszlo Csatary, Nazi war crimes suspect, arrested in Hungary
A protestor wearing a “No Nazi” symbol on her arm carries a banner with the slogan “we never forget” in front of Laszlo Csatary’s last home building in Budapest, Hungary on July 16, 2012.
Police in Hungary have arrested Laszlo Csatary, the man described as the most-wanted Nazi war crimes suspect.
Csatary, 97, was taken into custody earlier today, according to the Associated Press. He has been charged with war crimes, prosecutors said.
He has denied the allegations, Reuters reported.
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A former Hungarian police officer, Csatary is accused of helping to send some 15,700 Jews to their deaths in Auschwitz during World War II. Jerusalem's Simon Weisenthal Center lists him as its number-one living suspect.
The detention comes shortly after British tabloid The Sun claimed to have tracked Csatary down in Budapest. Since then, demonstrators had mounted a vigil outside the apartment where the suspect was reported to be living, calling for his arrest.
Budapest was also under pressure from opposition parties and other governments to act on the case, the Politics.hu news site said.
The Simon Weisenthal Center's head Nazi hunter, Efraim Zuroff, described Csatary's arrest as "a great victory and very important one."
"Hallelujah," Zuroff told the Jerusalem Post, adding that he hoped the aging suspect would face a swift trial.
The Center says it has presented Hungarian prosecutors with evidence that Csatary was a senior police officer in the town of Kosice, in modern-day Slovakia, when it was part of Hungary and occupied by the Nazis. He allegedly supervised the deportation of thousands of Jews to death camps in 1944.
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