Comments (0)Jewish KGB Spy Murdered in Moscow
November 7, 2009Jerusalem
JTA Wire Service
A Jewish KGB agent who spied on Israel and later became a business mogul in Russia was murdered in Moscow.
Shabtai Kalmanovich, 62, was shot in his car near his home in an attack that was likely a contract killing, Russian authorities said. His driver also was shot and injured.
Police believe the shooting was business related, according to reports.
A successful international businessman, Kalmanovich was prominent in Russian basketball. He was an investor in Spartak, a women’s professional team that won the EuroLeague title the past three seasons.
In exchange for spying on Jews seeking permission to immigrate to Israel in the 1970s, Kalmanovich and his family received permission to immigrate to Israel. In Israel, he continued to spy for the KGB, according to reports.
Kalmanovich spent five years in an Israeli prison for passing Israeli military secrets to the KGB. He was released in 1993 and returned to Russia.
Arab U.N. Delegates Circulate Draft on Goldstone
Arab delegates circulated a draft resolution requiring U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon to bring the Goldstone report before the Security Council.
The resolution was floated Monday ahead of a Wednesday’s scheduled meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, which is scheduled to debate the report accusing Israel and Hamas of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during last winter’s Gaza war
The resolution calls on Israel and the Palestinians to initiate independent investigations into the alleged war crimes, the French news agency AFP reported, and requires Ban, secretary-general of the United Nations, to report back to the General Assembly on the progress of the resolution in three months.
General Assembly resolutions are nonbinding.
Meanwhile, a joint French and British initiative in the United Nations would call on Israel to initiate independent probes into the war crimes allegations from the Gaza war, while at the same time preventing the report from being sent to the Security Council or to the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
Nazi Seeks Prosecutor’s Ouster as Trial Begins
One of the last major Nazi war crimes trials began in Germany with a former SS member demanding a new chief prosecutor.
Heinrich Boere, 88, is charged with having shot to death three Dutch resistance fighters in the Netherlands in 1944.
The trial opened Wednesday in the District Court of Aachen.
As the defendant watched from his wheelchair behind bulletproof glass, defense attorney Gordon Christiansen said that prosecuting attorney Ulrich Maass was unfit to handle the case after saying on television that he was determined to convict Boere “at any price.” Maass later downplayed the accusation while speaking with reporters outside the courtroom.
The trial will resume Monday.
Boere, who has not contested that he shot the three civilians, was ruled fit to stand trial in July, reversing a lower court decision. He had told Focus magazine in April that he was following orders when he killed them.
“It was not difficult,” he told the magazine. “You just had to bend a finger.”
A Dutch national, Boere fled to Germany and adopted German nationality after being found guilty in Holland, where a death sentence was commuted to life.
The trial of accused Nazi guard John Demjanjuk is set to begin in Munich next month.
This story reprinted courtesy of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.