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today’s ” AR-online” again AR-Online recent issues: November 1999 October 1999 September 1999 August 1999 July 1999 June 1999 May 1999 April 1999 March 1999 February 1999 January 1999 December 1998 November 1998 October 1998 September 1998 August 1998 July 1998 Alphabetical index (text) THIS decision by the same Philip Ruddock as declared Mr Irving would not receive a visa on grounds of “character” is an unprecedented slap in the face for the
“international Jewish community.” Show me the proof: Ruddock By KATHERINE TOWERS, PATRICK CONDREN and AAP THE Howard Government yesterday challenged international Jewish organisations to produce fresh evidence against all alleged war criminal Konrad Kalejs , or let him be.
Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock yesterday said he refused to be bullied into banning the suspected Nazi death squad member from returning to Australia, warning outraged Jewish groups that Mr Kalejs would be free to live out his life in peace here if no new evidence of his alleged crimes was provided. “We do not submit to criminal charges on the basis of assertions, we do it on the basis of evidence and that is the assumption of every Australian,” he said.
Mr Kalejs, an Australian citizen, is expected back in Australia later this week after being served a deportation notice by British authorities. It is believed his British visa expires tomorrow. The 86-year-old has been holed up in England since being tracked there last week by the famed Nazi-hunting group the Simon Wiesenthal Centre . Mr Kalejs is believed to be staying at a nursing home in Leicestershire.
He denies the allegations against him and previously has described his accusers as “liars and storytellers”. He has so far refused to comment on British Home Secretary Jack Straw’s decision to begin moves to deport him. The night manager at Catthorpe Manor — where Mr Kalejs is staying — said: “We want nothing more to do with Mr Kalejs. “The sooner he leaves England, the better it will be for all the residents here.”
Accused of holding a senior position in the notorious Arajs Kommando killing unit in Latvia, which is believed responsible for the murder of 30,000 Jews, Gypsies and communists, Mr Kalejs already has been deported from the US and Canada.
Mr Ruddock yesterday repeatedly denied accusations by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre that Australia had become a safe haven for Nazi war criminals and defended Mr Kalejs’s right to return. “He is an Australian citizen and any Australian citizen is entitled as a matter of law to