Reuters, December 5th, 2000 [pictures added by
this website]:
WJC asks Interpol not to arrest Russia's
Gusinsky
By Joan Gralla
NEW YORK, Dec 5 (Reuters) - The World
Jewish Congress said on Tuesday it had asked Interpol not to arrest
Russian media magnate Vladimir Gusinsky, charging that the Kremlin
was pursuing him on political - not criminal -
grounds.
Russia recently issued an international arrest warrant for
Gusinsky, who heads the Russian chapter of the World Jewish Congress.
He fled the country after he was jailed for three days in June on
fraud charges.
Elan Steinberg, WJC executive director, charged that Interpol was
taken over by Reinhard Heydrich - Heinrich Himmler's chief lieutenant
in the Schutzstaffel (SS) (both pictured on right) - and should not
allow itself today to be used to track down a Jew who has said he was
hounded out of Russia because his media empire criticized the
Kremlin.
A spokeswoman for the Washington, D.C.-based Interpol
office would not comment on whether the worldwide police
agency would hunt Gusinsky. Nor would it comment on the
agency's history during the Nazi era.
According to the Columbia Encyclopedia, Interpol, founded
in Vienna in 1923, was disbanded in 1938 then reconstituted
in Paris in 1946. It has 178 member nations who benefit from
information provided regarding the whereabouts of
international criminals.
Steinberg said that on Nov. 30 the WJC asked Interpol not
to pursue Gusinsky.
"It would set a precedent for their (Interpol) being used
in a human rights case for political purposes," he
said.
Steinberg charged that Interpol was used during the Nazi era
to hunt down Jews and said it was "inconceivable" such an
agency "would allow itself to become the instrument of
political persecution against a prominent Jewish leader
today."
Gusinsky has charged that his prosecution is a heavy handed
attempt to throttle press freedom. NTV, the flagship
television station of the media empire he founded, has been
a frequent critic of Kremlin policy.
President Vladimir Putin says he views a free press as a vital
element of a post-Soviet society, but has criticized some journalists
for acting "against the state."
Gusinsky is charged with irregularities in buying a video company
and illegally transferring assets abroad in a bid to avoid paying his
media empire's vast debts.
Russia's state-dominated natural gas monopoly on Tuesday said it
had possession of the largest unrestricted voting stake in NTV. In
mid-November, Gazprom reached a deal with Gusinsky to cover his debts
to the utility.
Steinberg also attacked Interpol for not dealing more frankly with
its history.
Interpol's web site, http://www.interpol.int, says the group ran
satisfactorily until the outbreak of World War II, skipping over the
years after 1923 until 1946, when it says a meeting was held to
revive it.
Gusinsky is not the only media chieftain to feel the Kremlin's
heat. Armed and masked police on Tuesday raided the offices of ORT
television, Russia's most-watched station in which the state has a
51-percent stake and controversial businessman Boris Berezovsky 49
percent.
Russian news agencies said the ORT search was linked to charges
the station failed to pay duty on imported videos. Berezovsky, who
also is Jewish, like Gusinsky is abroad and refusing to answer
prosecutors' questions in a separate criminal case.
