Russia probes alleged member of mafia awaiting trial in Israel

MOSCOW, Dec. 14 (JTA) — Russia has launched an investigation into a suspected Russian mafia member who is sitting in an Israeli jail. The decision to investigate Gregory Lerner, who changed his name to Zvi Ben-Ari after moving to Israel, came after months of speculation that Russia would not help Israel with the case. Lerner, who has been in custody since his arrest in May, has been charged with trying to blackmail Israeli bank and political officials and with defrauding banks and corporations in Israel, Russia and Europe. In a case brought by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Moscow last week, Lerner is suspected of misappropriating $200 million from five Russian banks. A spokesman said the office would not seek Lerner’s extradition because the Jewish state does not extradite its citizens, adding that the case had been opened in an effort to bring any Russian accomplices to justice. Israeli Public Security Minister Avigdor Kahalani visited Moscow last August, when he reportedly sought help from Russian officials with Lerner’s case. According to a news report, Jerusalem provided information on Lerner’s criminal activities in Russia to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, but unnamed, high-ranking ministry officials intercepted the information and withheld it from Minister Anatoly Kulikov in an attempt to sandbag the Israeli probe. After learning about the interception, Kulikov reportedly fired one police general. Meanwhile, in an interview last week with the Moscow newspaper Kommersant Daily, Lerner said his arrest in Israel was due to the efforts of Vladimir Goussinsky, the head of the Most media empire who also serves as president of the Russian Jewish Congress. Last July, Goussinsky’s independent NTV television station began regular broadcasts to Israel. Lerner said in the interview that he was against the NTV expansion to Israel and that he had been warned by Goussinsky that his opposition might lead to serious consequences. Goussinsky subsequently denied the allegations about his involvement in Lerner’s case, but confirmed that Lerner was indeed trying to stop NTV’s expansion to Israel. NTV, which has an audience of 120 million across the former Soviet Union, recently unveiled plans to expand its Russian-language broadcasts to Western Europe and other parts of the Middle East. Lerner maintained his innocence in the newspaper interview, but said he expected to be found guilty because “the Israeli state machine has made a No. 1 enemy out of me.”