December 12, 2005
Brazilian police have confirmed that they are looking for fugitive Nazi war criminal Alois Brunner after receiving a hint from Interpol that he may be hiding in the northeastern city of Salvador. “An international search request already existed for this person, but (now) we have received information that he could be in Brazil,” a police spokesman told AFP. The information was sent by Interpol's Israeli section, the spokesman said. Israel's newspaper "Ha'aretz" reported earlier that Brunner, the former right hand man to Adolf Eichmann, was living in Salvador. The Austrian-born former SS chief is responsible for sending tens of thousands of European Jews to death camps and would be in his early 90s today if still alive. According to "Ha'aretz", Brazilian police sources said that Brunner has been living in Brazil since 1999. Brazilian police contacted Interpol in May in order to gather information about Brunner in several different countries, particularly Israel, which said it would aid the identification attempt, the newspaper reported.
