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Friday February 23, 2007

ADL lauds hate crime tag for Wiesel attacker

The ADL is applauding the decision to charge the man accused of dragging Holocaust scholar Elie Wiesel out of a San Francisco elevator with committing a hate crime.

Acting at the behest of the San Francisco Police Department, New Jersey police arrested Eric Hunt at a mental health treatment center in Belle Mead, N.J., on Saturday, Feb. 17. Hunt, 22, had voluntarily checked in to the facility. He is being charged with attempted kidnapping, false imprisonment, elder abuse, stalking, battery and committing the aforementioned hate crime. He remained jailed in New Jersey as of press time, and bail has been denied.

The hate crime designation gratified Jonathan Bernstein, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League.

“It’s clear the assailant wanted to send a message beyond just Elie Wiesel but to the entire Jewish community and beyond. So it’s important for society to send a message back to him and other would-be perpetrators of hate crimes,” he said.

Wiesel claims that Hunt pulled him out of an elevator at the Argent Hotel on Feb. 1 and attempted to coerce him into admitting his seminal Holocaust memoir, “Night,” was a fabrication. Hunt supposedly fled the scene when Wiesel’s shouting attracted attention. The SFPD said it identified Hunt’s car in the hotel’s parking garage, and the alleged assailant even left his wallet and license in the vehicle.

Following the attack, a posting was made in Hunt’s name describing the incident on an anti-Semitic, Holocaust-denying Web site. Hunt’s lawyer has claimed his client is mentally ill and should not be jailed while awaiting trial.

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