Portugal detains rabbi over Abramovich naturalisation

Portuguese prosecutors have detained a rabbi and carried out raids over the naturalization process on several Jews, including Roman Abramovich, the Russian billionaire who owns the Chelsea soccer club.

Portugal‘s Public Ministry said Friday night that it detained the leader of Porto’s Jewish community, Daniel Litvak, as part of its investigation into possible cases of “influence peddling, active corruption, document falsification, money laundering or including tax evasion.

Local media reported that Litvak was arrested on Thursday as he was preparing to travel to Israel.

He is scheduled to appear before a judge on Saturday who will decide what measures to impose on him.

Portuguese prosecutors had announced in January that they were investigating the naturalization of Abramovich, who was granted Portuguese nationality in April 2021.

The owner of Chelsea, European champion, third in the English Premier League, benefited from a law approved by Portugal in 2013 that allows all descendants of Sephardic Jews, persecuted and expelled at the end of the fifteenth century, to obtain nationality Portuguese.

The Jewish community of the city of Porto, in northern Portugal, issued a certificate attesting to his ancestry.

Source Credit: TheGuardian