Updated July 19, 2012 13:13:05

Photo: Laszlo Csatary leaves the courthouse in Budapest (AFP: Attila Kisbenedek)

Map: Hungary

The world’s most wanted Nazi war criminal has been put under house arrest by authorities in Hungary.

Laszlo Csatary, the 97-year-old who tops the Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s dwindling list of wanted Nazi suspects, said nothing as he was whisked away in a car following his early-morning arrest in Budapest.

Csatary was then questioned for several hours by an investigating magistrate at a military prosecution office.

The Wiesenthal Centre accuses him of organising the World War II deportation of some 16,000 Jews from the ghetto of Kosice, in present-day Slovakia, to their deaths at the Auschwitz extermination camp.

State prosecutor Tibor Ibolya said Csatary was surprised by his arrest.

"Our viewpoint is that at this age, being under house arrest is already quite a shock," he said.

"We have to make sure that this man remains alive and is able to stand trial.

"The suspect is in good physical and mental health. He is being cooperative.

"One of his arguments in his defence is that he was obeying orders."