"If the war crimes suspect Milivoj Asner has indeed lost Austrian nationality, the Ministry of Justice will reconsider his case," Austrian Justice Minister Karin Gastinger was quoted as saying at a government session.
Gerhard Hauptmann, the head of the Carinthia provincial government department for nationality affairs, said in an interview with the Thursday issue of Der Standard newspaper that Asner was no longer an Austrian national and that the Office of the Public Prosecutor had been notified.
Asner served as chief of police under the Nazi-style Ustasha regime in Pozega, 180 kilometres east of Zagreb, in 1941 and 1942. He is suspected of having committed war crimes against civilians, mainly Jews and Serbs.
Gastinger said that the relevant authorities in Carinthia, where Asner now lives, were looking into his case.
The Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, Efraim Zuroff, on Thursday reiterated his call to the Austrian authorities to arrest Asner. "I call on the Austrian authorities to arrest Asner immediately," he told APA.