Magistrate Won’t End Artukovic Case

A federal magistrate rejected a defense move to halt extradition proceedings against accused Nazi war criminal Andrija Artukovic after a Justice Department official denied instigating Yugoslavia’s extradition request. U.S. Magistrate Volney V. Brown Jr. The action clears the way for the extradition hearing to proceed next Tuesday against the 85-year-old former interior minister in the Nazi puppet regime of wartime Croatia. Yugoslav authorities contend that he is responsible for the deaths of 700,000 Serbs, Jews and Gypsies who were sent to concentration camps by the pro-Nazi regime. They say they have new evidence to support their claims.