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Jon Silverman

How a Lithuanian commander described by a senior judge as a war criminal escaped prosecution in the UK.
The Jew-killer from Belarus trapped through a spelling anomaly.
The Latvian paramilitary officer who murdered thousands but was never brought to justice despite the pleas of Scotland Yard.

Jon Silverman is Emeritus Professor of Media & Criminal Justice at the University of Bedfordshire. He’s a former BBC Home Affairs Correspondent in which role he won the Sony Radio Journalist of the Year award for his coverage of the UK’s investigations into Nazi collaborators. He is the author of four books, including the first British examination of the phenomenon of crack cocaine and the Yardies – ‘Crack of Doom’ (Headline, 1993). Other works are ‘Innocence Betrayed’ (Polity, 2002) about paedophilia, media and society; and ‘Crime, Policy and the Media’ (Routledge, 2012). His latest (co-authored) work is ’Safe Haven’ (OUP, 2023). He reported from both the Rwanda and Yugoslavia tribunals and has written extensively for journals on international war crimes justice, including the relationship between the International Criminal Court and Africa.  

The Arajs Kommando was the Latvian paramilitary force which murdered thousands and relates to a senior commander called Harijs Svikeris who lived in the UK until 1995 and was not prosecuted. Serafinowicz was the first person to be prosecuted for murders in Byelorussia but the case never got to trial. Sawoniuk was the only person to be convicted in the UK under the 1991 War Crimes Act.