An alleged war criminal who has lived in Australia for decades suffered a stroke ahead of the resumption of court proceedings to extradite him, his son said Monday.

Former Hungarian soldier Charles Zentai, now aged 89, is accused of murdering a Jewish teenager in Budapest in 1944 but has always maintained his innocence.

Last year he won a five-year legal battle against his extradition to Hungary for questioning over the death, but the Australian government is now appealing that decision.

Zentai’s son Ernie Steiner said his father, an Australian citizen who has lived in the country for close to six decades, was taken to hospital on Friday after suffering a mini-stroke at home in Perth that left him unable to speak.

“I’m hoping that the appeal is dismissed and I hope that’s the end of the issue,” Steiner said told ABC Radio.

Steiner has urged the Australian government to allow his elderly father to be interviewed about the allegations in his adopted homeland by Hungarian officials rather than force him to travel to Europe.

“My father’s perfectly willing to answer questions, he’s said that many times before,” Steiner said.

“He’s got nothing to hide, and why they don’t do that, it’s the most logical thing. They’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on this case and it’s just pointless.”

Zentai is suspected of being one of three Nazi-backed Hungarian soldiers who tortured and murdered 18-year-old Jewish man Peter Balazs in November 1944 for not wearing a yellow Star of David.

(Source: Bangkock Post)