(JTA) — The Netherlands has issued an arrest warrant for convicted Nazi war criminal Klaas Faber.
Faber, who escaped from a Dutch prison in 1952 after being sentenced to life for the murder of several prisoners in the Westerbork transit camp, has been living in Germany ever since, according to the German news agency Deutsch Welle. Farber received citizenship from West Germany, where he fled after his escape.
Berlin had refused to extradite Faber, including the rejection of a 2004 request. A court in Dusseldorf in 1957 dismissed charges against Faber due to a lack of evidence.
The arrest warrant for Faber, the first time that the Netherlands has used the European arrest warrant system, is a preliminary step before a formal extradition request to Germany, according to Deutsch Welle.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center called upon Germany to extradite Faber in a statement released Nov. 25.
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