[3] 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.
[2] According to renowned Holocaust scholar Raul Hilberg, who gave evidence during the American proceedings against Kalējs, German documents established that the Einsatzkommando, the Arajs Kommando and similar groups were responsible for killing about 29,000 people (including about 26,000 Jews) by August 1941 and a further 27,800 Jews near Riga by the end of 1941 (the Arajs Kommando were responsible for about half of this total).
[2] After being discovered, then Home Secretary Jack Straw announced that moves would be made to deport Kalējs, at which point he returned to Australia.
[1] The Simon Wiesenthal Center, which had uncovered Kalējs' presence in Catthorpe, criticised Straw's decision: a spokesperson labelled it a "missed opportunity" to prosecute him, and warned that "if he returns to Australia he will benefit from the country's lax attitude towards Nazi war criminals.
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".