One of the world’s most-sought-after nazi war criminals from World War II is more than likely dead.  Nazi-hunter Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem says he is “99 percent sure” that Alois Brunner died at least four years ago in Syria.

Brunner was an Austrian SS captain and assistant to Adolph Eichmann who is accused of deporting more than 128,000 Jews to death camps in World War II.  Zurroff says a former German secret service agent – “a reliable source in our eyes,” said Zurroff – recently came up with new information about Brunner’s death and burial in Damascus.  Confirmation is impossible because of the Syrian civil war.  But since Brunner would be 102 years old today, Zurroff says he took the name off of his list.

In the 1950s Brunner fled Europe for Syria.  He is believed to have served as an adviser to President Hafez al-Assad – father of the current despot Bashar al-Assad – and is thought to have instructed the government on torture tactics.  France tried him in absentia and sentenced him to death, but Brunner successfully stayed off the world’s radar.  Even the Israeli Mossad failed at two assassination attempts against Brunner.  But Israel did arrest, try, and in 1962 executed Brunner’s boss Adolf Eichmann.