Suspected Nazi war criminal Milivoj Asner, who long avoided extradition to Croatia to face trial, has died at the age of 98, the director of the Austrian nursing home where he lived revealed.

Mr Asner, listed as one of the most wanted Nazi war criminals by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, died on June 14 in a home in the south Austrian province of Carinthia, Viktor Omelko, director of the Caritas organisation which administered the home, told the Austria Press Agency. Mr Asner, a former Croatian police chief, was accused by the Wiesenthal Centre of actively participating in the deportation of Serbs, Jews and Roma during World War II.

However, the Austrian authorities repeatedly refused to extradite him to Croatia to face trial for war crimes, based on medical reports that said Mr Asner suffered from dementia and was not fit to be questioned. The case made headlines again in 2008 when, despite the medical findings, Mr Asner and his wife were seen relaxing on a terrace among Euro 2008 football fans, in a photo published by the British daily The Sun.

Mr Asner had been living in the Carinthian town of Klagenfurt since 2006.