Nazi War Criminal, 97, Now in Custody The past may have finally caught up with a 97-year-old Nazi war criminal when Laszlo Csatary was taken into custody today in Budapest. Csatary, who has been convicted in absentia and sentenced to death, was picked up early today, Bettina Bagoly, spokeswoman for the Budapest prosecutor, told ABC News. The elderly former Nazi was charged with war crimes and will be taken before an investigative judge later today. The judge will determine whether Csatary is to remain in jail, but Bagoly said that it was "likely" that he would be placed under house arrest. She said the prosecutor's office is still investigating allegations against Csatary. "It took place 68 years ago in the region that is under the jurisdiction of another countryâwhich also raises several investigative and legal problems," the prosecutor's statement said. Csatary has lived openly under his own name in Budapest in recent years and the Simon Wiesenthal Center alerted authorities earlier this week of his location. Nevertheless, when police visited his two homes in Budapest earlier this week Csatary was not there. Csatary, the former police chief of the Slovakian city of Kosice, then part of Hungary, was described as a "particularly sadistic" Nazi official. "He created a camp for torturing the rich so they would confess where they have hidden the money," said Peter Feldmajer, the president of the Jewish community in Hungary. Laszlo Karsai, Hungary's top holocaust historian whose grandmother died in Auschwitz, agreed that Csatary was "very sadistic." According to the Wiesenthal Center, Csatary played a "key role" in the deportation of 300 Jews to Kamyanets-Podilsky in Ukraine where they were killed and is also helped organize the deportation of15,700 Jews to the concentration camp in Auschwitz, Poland.