For Immediate Release
Toronto, May 2, 2002 — B’nai Brith Canada is pleased to learn that the long anticipated arrest of Michael Seifert by the British Columbia RCMP on an Italian extradition warrant has finally taken place. Seifert was convicted in 2000 by an Italian military tribunal and sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment for wartime atrocities as an SS guard in a Nazi concentration camp. Seifert hid his past when he applied to immigrate to Canada in 1951.
David Matas, Senior Legal Counsel of B’nai Brith Canada, commented: “Canadian justice authorities are to be commended for their continued efforts to bring Seifert, a convicted war criminal, to justice. The government has finally acknowledged through Seifert’s arrest that deportation and extradition can occur simultaneously and that any problems in the extradition request made by Italy have been resolved. We can only hope that the extradition hearing before the British Columbia Supreme Court will be expedited given the long-standing request by the Italian authorities.”
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For more information contact David Matas, Senior Legal Counsel of B’nai Brith Canada at (204) 944-1831 or Ruth Klein, National Director of the Institute for International Affairs at cell (416) 346-0114
B’nai Brith has been active in Canada since 1875 as the community’s foremost advocacy and volunteer organization.
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