Most wanted Nazi criminal Heim may have died in Cairo in 1992

London, Feb.5 (ANI): The world's most-wanted Nazi war criminal, concentration camp doctor Aribert Heim, may have died in Cairo in 1992, according to reports.

Germany's ZDF television and The New York Times said Heim was living under a pseudonym and had converted to Islam by the time of his death from intestinal cancer.

ZDF said that in a joint effort with the New York Times, it located a passport, application for a residence permit, bank slips, personal letters and medical papers - in all more than 100 documents - left behind by Heim in a briefcase in the hotel room where he lived under the name Tarek Hussein Farid.

Although he did not know Heim's real identity, Egyptian dentist Tarek Abdelmoneim el Rifai said he knew him through his father, Abdelmoneim el Rifai, 88, who was Heim's dentist in Cairo.

He said he only met Heim a few times, 20 years ago, but confirmed that he knew of his death.

"He died in 1992. I didn't know that he was a doctor and that he is the most wanted Nazi war criminal. I am surprised," the Daily Express quoted him as saying by telephone.

"He introduced himself to my father as a German and I know that he converted to Islam and changed his name."

When he met Heim two decades ago at his father's clinic, el Rifai said he had the impression he was on the run.

ZDF quoted Heim's son Ruediger as confirming the pseudonym Tarek Hussein Farid as his father's assumed name and the documents as belonging to him.

Heim said he visited his father regularly in Cairo and had taken care of him after an operation related to his cancer in 1990.

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre's head Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff said he had not seen the documents and that while it seemed that there was "definitely a strong possibility" they pointed to Heim's death in Cairo 16 years ago, they needed to be examined by experts. (ANI)