Serbia Issues Interpol Warrant For Accused War Criminal Peter Egner

Egner, a prisoner in Bellevue

​Serbia's war crimes court has made it official, last week issuing an international warrant through Interpol for the arrest of accused Nazi war criminal Peter Egner, 88, of Bellevue. According to Belgrade's Radio B92 and the Tanjug news agency, Egner can be arrested and extradited to Serbia if and when his U.S. citizenship is revoked. A trial to denaturalize Egner is set to begin in Seattle next year.

Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic and U.S. prosecutors allege Egner took part in the killing of as many as 17,000 Jews as a member of the German Gestapo police from December 1941 into May 1942, using mobile gas chambers. SW reported two weeks ago that Egner is seeking a protective order limiting the use and exposure of evidence and other historical data being turned up in the case. In his first public statements about the allegations, Egner says he has become a prisoner in his Bellevue retirement center. Most fellow residents "treat me kindly," he said, "but there are some who ignore me altogether. Even the people that are nice to me have a look about them. I can see in their faces that they have doubts about me."