Suspected Nazi war criminal Konrad Kalejs was named as a lieutenant in a Latvian death squad by another squad leader during a British investigation in 1993, an Australian TV show claimed today.
Kalejs, who has cancer, took refuge in Australia two months ago after being deported from Canada. Authorities there concluded he had helped run a slave labour camp during the war.
The 83-year-old, who holds Australian citizenship, repeatedly has denied his involvement with the Nazi death squads, saying he was a university student during the Second World War.
Australian Federal Police, in charge of investigating cases involving possible war criminals, said that they did not know about the taped interview which was broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
In the interview, Harijs Svikeris, a lieutenant with the Latvian Arajs death squad, told British intelligence agents that Kalejs was a fellow squad leader. Svikeris did not name any other squad members or leaders.
A British investigator asked Svikeris if the security force became a mass execution squad.
Svikeris answered: ''Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.''
Did the squad's activities include ''robbing, raping, plundering, pillaging, murder, mass executions?'' he was asked.
Svikeris answered ''Yes, yes.''
The Australian Government, which failed three times to convict war criminals in recent years, has resisted calls to deport Kalejs. Australia said it would not force the man out until its investigation is complete.
Kalejs, who lives in Melbourne, worked for the Australian Government as an immigration official after the war.
He lived in the United States from 1959 until 1985, when he was arrested after the Justice Department found he lied about his wartime activities. On his entry application, he said he was a farm labourer.
He was deported to Australia in April 1994, and left for Canada about a year later.
In France, meanwhile, hundreds protested against a court decision to free accused Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon during his trial for allegedly sending French Jews to Nazi death camps.
Prosecutors also protested the decision to release Papon by filing an appeal in France's highest court, the Court de Cassation. However the appeal was largely a symbolic gesture because it will not be heard until the trial is over.
On Friday, a Bordeaux court cited Papon's health and age when it freed the 87-year-old former Cabinet minister on the third day of his trial.
Prime Minister Lionel Jospin told a newspaper that he was surprised to see Papon walk free.
''I deeply regret that, if convicted, the ruling means the effect can only be moral.''-AP/Reuters.
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