Andrija Artukovic

Suspected Nazi war criminal Andrija Artukovic, often contradicting himself and pleading memory loss, denied today that he was involved in the World War II murders of hundreds of women and children. Artukovic, 86, was questioned for more than two hours by Chief Judge Milko Gajski on the second day of his trial in Zagreb.

For the last seven years Radoslav A. Artukovic has waged a one-man war against the court of world opinion that has condemned his father as the so-called "Butcher of the Balkans." Artukovic, a stockbroker, has hired historians, lobbied Congress and hand-delivered hundreds of documents to the U.S.

The son of alleged Nazi war criminal Andrija Artukovic says Yugoslav officials have not responded to his month-old request for a visa to attend his father's trial for war crimes and he is afraid he won't be admitted to the country. Rad Artukovic, who lost a legal battle to prevent the extradition of his 86-year-old father to his native land, said he has asked the U.S. government for help.

The Justice Department is investigating claims that officials of its Nazi-hunting unit lied under oath and withheld crucial evidence involving a former Southern Californian convicted of war crimes by a Yugoslav court, it was learned Thursday. A source familiar with the internal investigation, however, said that there are no indications that the late Andrija Artukovic was falsely convicted of bearing responsibility for hundreds of deaths during World War II.

A third appeal for clemency by Andrija Artukovic, under death sentence for war crimes when Croatia was a Nazi puppet state, has been rejected, the state news agency Tanjug said today. Artukovic, 87, who had been living in Seal Beach, was extradited from the United States in February and tried for crimes against humanity and war crimes in connection with the deaths of more than 700,000 Jews, Serbs and Gypsies between 1941 and 1945.

February, 1986, will be referred to in history as the "month of miracles." My reference is to the unlamented departure of two bloody dictators, Jean-Claude Duvalier of Haiti and Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines; the extradition of two Nazi war criminals, Andrija Artukovic to Yugoslavia and John Demjanjuk to Israel, for crimes committed during World War II. What a pity that it should take so long for justice to prevail! GENE GALVIN Los Angeles

A U.S. magistrate tentatively ruled today that accused Nazi war criminal Andrija Artukovic be released on bail from a federal prison hospital in Springfield, Mo., and be allowed to return to Southern California. Artukovic has been accused of complicity in the execution of 770,000 Yugoslavian Serbs and Jews during World War II. His attorneys said Artukovic, 85, is blind and suffering from a variety of serious illnesses. Magistrate John R.

The son of alleged Nazi war criminal Andrija Artukovic filed suit today in U.S. District Court claiming that the Justice Department is violating his father's rights by trying to deport him under Yugoslav rather than U.S. extradition laws. "Our government is making a big mistake," the son, Rad Artukovic of Los Angeles, said at a news conference. The suit charges the Office of Special Investigations, the government of Yugoslavia, Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III and Secretary of State George P.

Yugoslavia's Federal Court upheld the May 14 death sentence for Andrija Artukovic, former police minister of the Nazi puppet state of Croatia, the state-run news agency reported. Attorneys for Artukovic, 86, who suffers from several ailments including Alzheimer's disease, said they plan further appeals.

A federal magistrate ruled today that alleged Nazi war criminal Andrija Artukovic may be extradited to face trial in Yugoslavia for mass murder but ordered that he not be removed from the United States until his attorneys have time to appeal. U.S.

The son of a man who lived nearly 40 years in the United States and then died in a prison in Yugoslavia after being convicted of Nazi war crimes challenged U.S. officials Friday to admit that they wrongly extradited his father to a Communist court. Rad Artukovic, in a 135-page report submitted to the U.S. Justice Department, said the department used fraudulent evidence to send his father, Andrija Artukovic, to face a "sham trial" in Yugoslavia two years ago.

About 400 people packed St. Anthony's Croatian Church in Los Angeles Saturday night in a memorial Mass for convicted war criminal Andrija Artukovic, and heard the highest-ranking Nazi extradited from the United States defended as a victim of gross injustices. Artukovic, 88, died Jan. 16 in a prison hospital in Yugoslavia, where he had been convicted of war crimes.

Andrija Artukovic, the highest-ranking Nazi extradited from the United States, died in a Yugoslav prison hospital Saturday while awaiting execution for helping to run concentration camps where hundreds of thousands perished, the state news agency announced Monday. He was 88. The official news agency gave no cause of death. But Artukovic had been in fading health for years. A Yugoslav court announced last April that his death by firing squad was being postponed because he was too frail.

Andrija Artukovic, the Croatian fascist leader held responsible for 700,000 deaths in World War II, has died almost two years after being sent from his safe haven in the United States to face trial in Yugoslavia. The state news agency Tanjug said the 89-year-old man known as "the Butcher of the Balkans" died on Saturday at a prison hospital in Zagreb. Artukovic, who lived for many years in Seal Beach, Calif.

Andrija Artukovic, convicted nearly a year ago of ordering more than 1,000 deaths during World War II, may escape a Yugoslav firing squad because of his poor health, family members have been told. A Yugoslav court has informed Artukovic's attorney that the 87-year-old man's execution has been postponed because "a medical review determined that he is in no condition to be executed," said Radoslav Artukovic, the ailing man's son.

U.S. Magistrate Volney V. Brown Jr. called Andrija Artukovic, accused Nazi mass-murderer of 700,000 humans during World War II, a "gallant old man." Well. It would seem that if you live long enough, and get sick enough, you can get away with anything. Not only that. You'll draw praise from no less an authority than a member of our very own judicial system. What a splendid example of justice at work to set before our young. Congratulations, Magistrate Brown. EVELYN K. SHAW Los Angeles

The Yugoslav Federal Court has rejected a second "extraordinary" appeal of the death sentence against convicted war criminal Andrija Artukovic, the official Tanjug news agency reported Friday. The appeal was submitted by the 87-year-old Artukovic's lawyers March 25 and was rejected Thursday, the agency said. Lawyers for the former Seal Beach, Calif., resident asked the sentence be waived because their client was ill and senile, but the court denied the appeal after acquiring a medical report.