[Image
and caption added by this website]
February
26, 2008 Leonid
Nevzlin, former
president of the Russian Jewish Congress,
now
lives in Israel. We guess that some of this
"philanthropist's" alleged victims will not have
appreciated his gifts.
Nevzlin being
tried for murder
Official
JTA logo
THE
FORMER president of the Russian Jewish Congress
is being put on trial in Russia for
murder.
Proceedings against former Yukos co-owner
Leonid Nevzlin, who now lives in Israel,
are scheduled to begin March 4 in Moscow,
according to the Web site Jewish.ru.
The Jewish businessman and
philanthropist is
being charged with the ordering of multiple
murders committed between 1998 and 2002,
including those of Moscow businesswoman
Valentina Korneyeva and Nefteyugansk
Mayor Vladimir Petukhov.
"Preliminary hearings in the matter will be
put forth next Tuesday [March 4, 2008],"
said Anna Usacheva, head of the press
service of the Moscow City Court. "In accordance
with the law, those preliminary hearings will
take place in a closed courtroom."
Nevzlin's defenders say the charges are
baseless and the trial is politically
motivated.
Nevzlin, who fled Russia in 2003 as the
Kremlin was beginning what
many observers said
was the politically motivated prosecution of his
Yukos partner Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is
expected to be tried in absentia. In
Israel, Nevzlin is considered one of the
country's wealthiest citizens.
The Russian Jewish Congress refused to
comment on the trial.