Latvian prosecutors reaffirmed Thursday their commitment to prosecute war criminals, including two alleged Nazi collaborators who are the focus of a two-day international gathering of investigators that got underway today in Riga.
Prosecutors, diplomats and war crimes investigators from Australia, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Israel and the United States are in Riga to discuss evidence against suspected Latvian-born Nazi war criminals Konrads Kalejs and Karlis Ozols.
Kalejs, 86, and Ozols, 88, both now Australian citizens living in Melbourne, have been accused of participating in the mass killing of Jews, Gypsies and others during the Nazi occupation of Latvia in 1941 and 1942.
Prosecutor General Janis Maizitis said Latvia will investigate all war crimes committed on its territory or by Latvian citizens, the Baltic News Service reported, countering criticism from Nazi hunting organizations that the country was needlessly delaying bringing formal charges against the two men.
Latvia signed an extradition treaty with Australia in July that clears the way for Latvia to press charges.
Kalejs was deported from the United States in 1994 after evidence linked him to the notorious Latvian death squad the Arajs Kommando. He was later chased backed to Australia from Canada and Great Britain, where he was living in a retirement home under a false name.
Ozols has been accused of leading a Latvian detachment that exacted Nazi atrocities in neighboring Belarus.
Both men maintain their innocence.
At the meeting investigators and war crimes experts are expected to review what materials on the men considered as evidence in a Latvian court.
About 700 pages of documents obtained in Moscow this summer are likely to be a key topic of discussion among the officials.
Russian officials were invited but declined to attend the meeting.
Latvian prosecutors have expressed concern that not a single eyewitness has come forward during the many investigations of both men abroad, although top officials from the US and Australia are convinced of at least Kalejs' guilt.
Latvia has been vigilant in prosecuting Soviet war criminals, who are usually ethnic Russians. But the country has drawn international criticism for its reluctance to prosecute Nazi war criminals, who are typically Latvian -- RIGA(AFP)
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