Artukovic Sues, Claiming Evidence Was Trumped Up

Accused Nazi war criminal Andrija Artukovic, fighting to block his ouster from the United States, filed a $10-million lawsuit Tuesday accusing the Justice Department and the Yugoslavian government of conspiring to falsify evidence against him.

A federal judge has ordered Artukovic, 85, extradited to Yugoslavia to face charges of involvement in World War II atrocities committed while he was a top official in the government of Croatia, an ally of the Third Reich.

The federal government describes Artukovic as one of the highest-ranking Nazi war criminals living in the country and has tried twice before to deport him, both times unsuccessfully.

But in his lawsuit filed in federal district court in Washington, Artukovic describes himself as a Croatian patriot who angered the present Communist regime in Belgrade by advocating independence for the once autonomous section of Yugoslavia.

The suit accuses the Yugoslavian government, after again demanding Artukovic’s extradition last fall, of trumping up evidence against him at the prompting of Justice Department Nazi hunters, frustrated by their past failures to deport him.

Ernest C. Raskauskas, one of Artukovic’s attorneys, contended at a news conference that because of legal technicalities, it is harder for the U.S. government to oust Artukovic if it initiates the proceedings than if a foreign government initiates them.

The Justice Department “came up with a plan to engage the government of Yugoslavia to assist them in having Mr. Artukovic removed from the U.S.,” Raskauskas charged.

Son Denies Charges

Artukovic’s son, Radoslav, denied charges that his father was involved in the murder of thousands of Serbs, Gypsies and Jews during World War II and accused federal prosecutors of engaging in a “kind of reverse McCarthyism” in allegedly prodding Yugoslavia into action.

“These gentlemen are so zealous that they’re willing to take shortcuts left and right,” he said.

Artukovic was arrested last November while living in Surfside, Calif. In ill health, he has been held since May in a federal prison hospital in Springfield, Mo. He emigrated to the United States in 1948.

A U.S. magistrate in Los Angeles has set July 10 for a hearing on Artukovic’s petition for release on bail while he appeals the extradition order. It is unclear whether he will be transferred to Los Angeles to attend the hearing, although federal officials had indicated that they may seek to have him moved from Missouri to the federal minimum security detention center at Terminal Island.