Ašner was born in Daruvar, in the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After the establishment of the Independent State of Croatia in 1941, he became chief of police in Požega. After the collapse of the Independent State of Croatia Ašner retreated towards Austria, where he took a new name, Georg Aschner. In 1992, after Croatia declared itself independent, Ašner returned to Croatia, living in Požega until 2004 when Alen Budaj, a historian and associate of the Israeli Simon Wiesenthal Centre located him there. That same year, the director of the Centre, Efraim Zuroff, brought the documents on Ašner to the Croatian Prosecutor's Office. Ašner fled to Austria. In 2005, the Republic of Croatia accused him of crimes against the civilians and asked for his extradition from Austria. In 2008, Austria refused on the grounds that Ašner suffered from severe dementia and unfit to stand trial.
Efforts to prosecute
In 2005, Croatia indicted Ašner for crimes against humanity and war crimes in the city of Požega in 1941-42. In February 2006, Austrian judicial officials said they were close to deciding on whether to arrest Ašner. Austrian officials initially ruled he could not be handed over to Croatian authorities as he held Austrian citizenship. He remained on Interpol's most wanted list, and was considered by the Simon Wiesenthal Center as the fourth most wantedNazi at large. In June 2008, the then controversial Governor of Carinthia, Jörg Haider, praised Ašner's family as friendly and said of Ašner that "he's lived peacefully among us for years, and he should be able to live out the twilight of his life with us". This provoked further criticism, with Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center saying that Haider's views reflected "the political atmosphere which exists in Austria and which in certain circles is extremely sympathetic to suspected Nazi war criminals". In an interview that aired in Croatia on 19 June 2008, Ašner acknowledged that he was involved in deportations, but maintained that those who were deported were taken not to death camps, as is generally believed, but to their homelands instead. He claimed his conscience was clear and that he was willing to go on trial in Croatia, but also asserted that his health was a problem. In an examination in the same week, it was again decided he was mentally unfit. Zuroff expressed the suspicion that Ašner was pretending or exaggerating regarding his condition.
