Alleged Nazi war criminal dies in Quebec

By Associated Press in Montreal | China Daily | Updated: 2015-05-30 07:45

The second-most-wanted man on the Simon Wiesenthal Center's list of Nazi war criminals - charged this month by Russia with genocide - has died at age 93, his lawyer said.

Vladimir Katriuk died last week after a long illness, Orest Rudzik said on Thursday.

News of his death emerged several hours after the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs said Ottawa should take the necessary steps to ensure he was held accountable if found guilty of war crimes committed in collaboration with the Nazis.

Russia charged Katriuk this month with genocide in connection with the 1943 killing of civilians in Khatyn, now part of Belarus. According to war reports, Katriuk was a member of a Ukrainian battalion of the SS, the elite Nazi storm troops, between 1942 and 1944. He had denied the accusations.

The Russian embassy in Ottawa called on the Harper government a few weeks ago to support a criminal case against Katriuk. The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, a law enforcement body that reports only to Russian President Vladimir Putin, called on Canada to deliver Katriuk to Moscow so he could be tried for alleged war crimes.

Harper's Conservative government ignored the request, saying it would never recognize Moscow's annexation of Crimea and its interference in Ukraine.

A study three years ago alleged Katriuk was a key participant in a village massacre during World War II in what is now Belarus.

(China Daily 05/30/2015 page12)