The Reuters news agency reported today (Saturday) that the Porto police have arrested the rabbi Daniel Litvak, Head of the Jewish community in the city, while planning to fly to Israel. Police said he was arrested on suspicion of issuing to billionaire Roman Abramovich, forged documents in order to issue him Portuguese citizenship. The Portuguese newspaper “Publico” reported that the arrest was made as part of the investigation against the owner of the English football club “Chelsea”.
Rabbi Litvak supervised the department that approves Portuguese citizenship on the basis of criteria “accepted by the government”. Last April, Abramovich received Portuguese citizenship on the basis of a law offering citizenship to descendants of Spanish Jews expelled from it during the Inquisition. Meanwhile, it was reported that part of the process is to examine the pedigree of the candidates being examined by experts at one of the Jewish centers in Lisbon or Porto.
Public prosecutors opened an investigation last January, and a Portuguese government official told Reuters that Abramovich’s citizenship could be revoked as part of the investigation. As part of the investigation, Portuguese police raided homes, law firms and others as part of a comprehensive investigation against money laundering, corruption and forgery of documents.