LISBON – The chief of the Jewish group in Portugal’s northern metropolis of Porto answerable for issuing a doc that allowed Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich to get Portuguese citizenship final 12 months has been detained, newspaper Publico stated on Friday.
Officers from the legal investigation company PJ detained Rabbi Daniel Litvak as a part of an ongoing inquiry by public prosecutors into the granting of citizenship to Chelsea soccer membership proprietor Abramovich, Publico stated.
Porto’s Jewish group has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
In an announcement, PJ stated a suspect had been detained on Thursday however didn't title the rabbi, including the suspect would seem earlier than a choose.
It stated its officers raided houses, a lawyer’s workplace and others areas on Friday as a part of the investigation into numerous crimes, reminiscent of cash laundering, corruption and falsification of paperwork. Proof was collected and can be analysed, it added.
Abramovich was granted citizenship in April 2021 primarily based on a regulation providing naturalisation to descendants of Sephardic Jews who have been expelled from the Iberian peninsula throughout the mediaeval Inquisition.
There may be little identified historical past of Sephardic Jews in Russia, though Abramovich is a typical surname of Ashkenazi Jewish origin.
Candidates’ genealogies are vetted by specialists at one among Portugal’s Jewish centres in Lisbon or Porto. The Porto centre, the place Litvak is the rabbi, was answerable for Abramovich’s course of.
Public prosecutors opened the inquiry in January.. On Thursday, a Portuguese authorities supply informed Reuters Abramovich’s citizenship might be stripped relying on the result of the inquiry.
Litvak was making ready to journey to Israel when he was detained, Publico stated.
The Porto Jewish centre and the general public prosecutors didn't instantly reply to Reuters requests for remark.
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