The Simon Wiesenthal Center announced today that it had received information
on thirty-eight suspects accused of participation in Holocaust
crimes in Latvia or as members of Latvian Security Police units
outside the country during the initial year of its “Operation: Last Chance” project launched together with the Targum Shlishi Foundation of Miami in July
2002.
In a statement issued in Jerusalem by
Israel director and project coordinator Dr. Efraim Zuroff,
the Center noted with satisfaction that the names of ten suspects
had already been submitted to Chief Prosecutor Janis Osis of
the Division of Investigation of Crimes of Totalitarian Regimes
for formal investigation and that the Center was looking forward
to the opening of official investigations against at least
several of the suspects. Four of the suspects were living abroad – in Canada, the United States, and Sweden.
According to Zuroff:
“ During its initial year, “Operation:
Last Chance” has clearly proven its significance by providing prosecutors in Latvia (and
Lithuania) with an opportunity to bring to justice Holocaust perpetrators whose
whereabouts and crimes were unknown to local prosecutors. In addition, the names
submitted to the Wiesenthal Center constitute on important addition to our knowledge
of the identities of the perpetrators of the Holocaust.
“We are hopeful that the
Latvian authorities will succeed in bringing as many as possible
of the suspects to trial and that justice will finally be achieved
in these cases.
“We again call upon the public
to come forward with any information known to them regarding
the identity of unprosecuted Nazi murderers currently alive
anywhere in the world.”
To date, the Center has not paid any financial
rewards to informants in Latvia but will do so as soon as there
is an official murder investigation against any suspect healthy
enough to stand trial.
For more information call: 972-51-214156
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