Konrāds Kalējs

Konrāds Kalējs (; 26 June 1913 – 8 November 2001)

Activities under Nazi occupation In 1941, following the German invasion of Latvia as part of Operation Barbarossa, Kalējs deserted the Red Army (Latvia by that stage having been occupied by the Soviet Union) and became a member of the Nazi-controlled Latvian security police. Kalējs would later assert that he worked as a farmhand during this period. He was arrested by a US Marshal and Miami-Dade Police Detectives from the Department's Warrants Bureau, at his small motel room on Miami Beach.

After a four-year process, a United States court revoked Kalējs' visa, having found that there was "unequivocal evidence" that he had participated in war crimes in Latvia, although as an Australian citizen Kalējs was not prosecuted.

Latvian authorities charged Kalējs with war crimes offences in September 2000, relating to his participation at the Salaspils labour camp, and in May 2001 a Melbourne court ordered Kalējs' extradition to Latvia.

Kalējs died in Melbourne in November 2001, aged 88. His lawyers criticised the government of Australia for being "inhumane and callous in its bid to extradite a sick old man" and described the process as a "witch hunt". In his last Australian interview, Kalējs admitted to working for the Nazi-run Latvian police.