RPT - Canada Refused To Comment On Ex-Nazi Oberlander Despite Russia's Query - Embassy

TORONTO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th December, 2020) Canada's government did not request documents on former Nazi Helmut Oberlander and refrains from commenting on his case despite Moscow's request for legal assistance, the Russian Embassy in Ottawa told Sputnik.

"The Canadian authorities declined to comment on this story; they did not request any documents from Russia. Currently, the Embassy is not aware of any dialogue with representatives of the Government of Canada on H. Oberlander," the embassy said.

Despite indisputable facts of the Nazi criminal's guilt, the proceedings are clearly dragging out, the embassy representative added.

"It is obvious that the punisher's influential defenders seek to delay as much as possible the implementation of the Supreme Court of Canada ruling, trying to retain his 'Canadian residence permit' until he passes away," the embassy official said.

Diplomats quoted Oberlander's lawyer who said that the case is "far from over" with the deportation process yet to begin.

Russian investigators say that the 96-year-old Oberlander, who currently resides in Canada and has a Canadian citizenship, was complicit in the World War II shooting of 27,000 people in Russia's Rostov region. Additionally, in February, Russia's Investigative Committee sent a request to the Canadian authorities to provide legal materials related to the probe of Oberlander's role in the massacre of orphans in the Russian city of Yeysk during World War II.

The Investigative Committee said that it is assessing Oberlander's role in the crime against humanity, which does not have a statute of limitations in accordance with the 1945 Charter of the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg.