Aug. 14




CANADA:


Nazi war criminal jailed as appeal rejected
Italy has sentenced Michael Seifert, 83, to life for torture and murder


A Nazi war criminal living in Vancouver will spend the long weekend in
jail after the B.C. Court of Appeal upheld an extradition request from
Italy, which wants him returned to serve a life sentence for torturing and
murdering prisoners.

Now a frail 83-year-old who walks with a cane, Michael Seifert was a
German Nazi SS (Schutzstaffel) officer and a guard at the Bolzano Transit
Camp in northern Italy during the Second World War.

The Italian government alleges Seifert beat, tortured, starved and
murdered inmates at the Nazi-run prison camp between December 1944 and
April 1945.

The function of the Bolzano camp was to gather anti-fascist and anti-Nazi
politicians, Jews, German army deserters and others rounded up in Italy
who were destined to be transferred to concentration and extermination
camps in Austria (Mauthausen), Germany (Dachau, Flossenburg,
Ravensbruck) and Poland (Auschwitz).

Seifert refused to travel to Italy for his trial in 2000, where he was
convicted, in absentia, on nine murder counts involving 11 people. He was
sentenced to life in prison.

One of his grounds of appeal was that Italy's conduct was an abuse of
process because a trial was held before extradition, so he was unable to
defend himself.

But the appeal court found Seifert couldn't complain about in-absentia
proceedings he refused to attend.

The court also noted a defence lawyer was appointed for Seifert by the
court at his trial in Italy.

The lawyer asked questions of the witnesses and made submissions on behalf
of Seifert, who was acquitted on six of the 15 charges for which he was
tried, the appeal court noted.

Seifert's lawyer, Doug Christie, said Friday he will seek leave to appeal
the latest ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Seifert had to surrender himself Friday morning before the appeal court
ruling, and remained in custody after the ruling. He had been free on bail
since 2003.

"I intend to bring a bail application next week," Christie said.

Seifert has been fighting his extradition to Italy since 2003. He moved to
Canada more than 50 years ago, raised a family and has been living in east
Vancouver.

The appeal court also dismissed Seifert's petition for a judicial review
of the justice minister's order in 2005 that Seifert be surrendered to
Italy.

Seifert alleged that then-justice minister Irwin Cotler had a background
as a passionate advocate for Jewish organizations in matters related to
the Holocaust and bringing Nazi war criminals to justice, which gave rise
to a reasonable apprehension of bias.

"Seifert must be accountable for his criminal acts," the appeal court
concluded. "They are high crimes of the worst order. They overwhelm his
personal circumstances. It is not unjust or oppressive for him to face the
consequences of nine murders accompanied by extreme cruelty."

At his extradition hearing, Seifert's lawyer initially questioned whether
his client was mentally fit to participate in the process and challenged
the sufficiency of the evidence adduced by Italy in various ways.

Seifert testified for four days, denying every allegation of wrongdoing by
every witness in Italy's record of the case.

On Aug. 27, 2003, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Selwyn Romilly committed
Seifert to be extradited to Italy on seven of the nine murder offences.

The latest appeal judgment is online at:
www.courts.gov.bc.ca/Jdb-txt/CA/07/04/2007BCCA0407.htm

(source: Vancouver Sun)