Alleged attacker apologizes to Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel
Eric Hunt is charged with attacking the elder Holocaust scholar in a San Francisco hotel in February.
By The Associated Press Tags: anti-SemitismA man charged with dragging Holocaust scholar Elie Wiesel from a hotel elevator apologized in court to the Nobel laureate over the alleged anti-Semitic attack.
Eric Hunt, 23, has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted kidnapping, false imprisonment, battery, stalking, elder abuse and hate crimes following the February incident at San Francisco's Argent Hotel.
The apology came Monday in the midst of a hearing to determine whether Hunt, who originally pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity but later changed his plea, should stand trial.
Hunt raised a shaking hand and spoke up suddenly from his seat next to his lawyer just as Wiesel had finished describing his ordeal in Nazi death camps, where his parents and younger sister died.
"Mr. Wiesel, I'm sorry for scaring you and I'm sorry you experienced the Holocaust," Hunt said. "My grandfather fought the Nazis and I'm sorry about what happened."
Wiesel did not respond but went on to describe the February 1 incident in which he said Hunt grabbed him from the elevator and demanded that the 78-year-old professor come to his room for an interview. Wiesel said he feared he was being kidnapped and began shouting for help in the empty hallway on the hotel's sixth floor.
"The shock to me was so great I lost a sense of time and of space," said Wiesel, who was not injured.
Hunt, of Vernon, New Jersey, has been in a San Francisco jail psychiatric ward since May, when he was flown to California to face the charges.
His lawyer, San Francisco defense attorney John Runfola, said in an interview Monday that prosecutors had overcharged his client.
"Hunt is not an anti-Semitic stalker, but a man suffering from mental illness who needs treatment rather than imprisonment," Runfola said. "When he confronted Wiesel, Hunt was in the grip of a manic episode triggered by his grandfather's death," his lawyer said.
"The defense has sent the results of a psychiatrist's evaluation to Wiesel along with 20 letters from Hunt's family, friends and teachers describing the incident as deeply out of character for the high school honor student and college graduate," Runfola said.
"I'm hoping that in (Wiesel's) lifelong struggle to help oppressed people, he reaches out to one of them, and that's Eric Hunt," Runfola said.
Under questioning from the defense, Wiesel acknowledged he was never directly verbally threatened by Hunt and was not touched again after being grabbed the first time.
But Wiesel said he felt violated and now travels to his many speaking engagements with bodyguards, which he testified he never did before the encounter with Hunt.
A canvas bag recovered from Hunt's room after he fled contained $3,100 cash and a plastic zip tie similar to what police use in place of handcuffs when making mass arrests. Investigators also found in the bag a copy of Night, Wiesel's bestselling Holocaust memoir, Inspector Mark Gamble said.
Shortly after the alleged attack, authorities became aware of a posting on an anti-Semitic website in which a writer identifying himself as Hunt claimed responsibility for the attack. The writer said he wanted to take Wiesel into his custody and force him to admit that Night was a work of fiction.
Hunt admitted to writing the post during a police interview shortly before he was arrested at a New Jersey psychiatric clinic in mid-February, said New York Police Department Sgt. Al Fiore at Monday's hearing.
The majority of the five-page post was written by Hunt, Runfola acknowledged outside court, but some of the content was added later by others, including its title, Elie Wiesel and the Big Lie, he said.
Hunt's case has drawn the attention of Jewish advocacy groups who say that anti-Semitism is on the rise worldwide, particularly in the form of so-called Holocaust denial.
"The alleged attack is just part and parcel of this overall unfriendly climate that I think Jews are feeling," said Nancy J. Appel, associate director of the Anti-Defamation League's San Francisco office, who attended the hearing. "I think that this was motivated by hatred and prejudice."
Outside the courtroom, Hunt's mother, Naomi McCloskey, approached Wiesel and asked for his forgiveness, calling her son kind and sensitive.
"His mother suffers a lot," Wiesel told reporters. "She doesn't deserve that suffering."
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Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel speaking to reporters in San Francisco on Monday after testifying against a man accused of attacking him. (AP) |
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Mr.Elie Wiesel: I have read the book you co-authored with Francois Mitterand:quite nice! Your comment on the suffering of Hunt's mother reflect your honorable humanism, but I did not expect less from you! Now, since it seems pretty established that the "agression" by this young mentally disturbed man, was not really violent, and was more scare than anything, it probably would be a good thing, if you could pardon him... Possibly help him to spend less time in jail, which may not really not accomplish anything of great value... Respectfully, votre... A.G.
"Under questioning from the defense, Wiesel acknowledged he was never directly verbally threatened by Hunt and was not touched again after being grabbed the first time." Can someone explain why a criminal offense is committed by grabbing a person, then let go and neither threatening nor harming said person? The only answer seems to be: the person is a VIP Jew.
Eli Wiesel who has stood up for the Muslims of Serbia, who has raised his voice for the victims of Rwanda, who has spoken for the victims of Darfur. A man who has spent his life to spread love and humanity. Who are you to say shame on him? You sound like an inhumane war monger to say that.
Shame on Eli Wiesel for siding with the oppressors over the oppressed . It's just shocking! He has lost credibility all over the place. Dutch
My point really was that the US never gets any of this information. We are told EVERY DAY that no Jewish people survived, period. I read everything I can find. Haaretz has been very educational. Thanks for explaining.
The Nazis were from time to time accepting Payments for release of some Jewish people. The most famous case was the negotiation between SS General Adolf Eichman, the architect of the destruction machinery and Kastner who was the head fo the jewish organization in Hungary. Eichman demanded trucks for the release of Hungarian Jews. At the end few hundred Jesish people were allowed to leave Hungary and Slovakia to Switzerland. You should read more carefully the Haaretz. The case of Kastner and the released Jews was described few weeks ago on Haaretz pages.
There has never been more hypocrite par excellence than Elie Wiesel. The man is nothing but a fraud and a lie. He Zionism makes him totally blind to the crimes committed by his fellow Zionists. I wonder where did he learn all this hate? He should be named Hypocrite of the Century. But then the Nobel Prize was given to such criminals and murderers like Begin, Kissinger, Peres and Arafat among others. Sadat did deserve the prize.
The Arabs aren't undergoing anything like what you think you describe. They call their punishment on themselves. They are just seeing the Jews protecting themselves against being terrorised and killed off once again. You Arabs saw that the germans killed Jews so easily and thought that they were just easy victims.
Someone who wanted Weisel to admit that his Holocaust wiritngs were made up sounds like an mutated Holocaust denier to me. And Holocaust deniers are by definition anti-Semitic.
When the Muslims were being slaughtered in Bosnia and the whole world was silent about it, Elie Wiesel was the first one to stand in front of the UN and demand that action be taken to save them. After that USA sent the troops. As far as the Palestinian Arabs, they had a chance to have their independent state in 2000 Camp David but their leader Arafat could not accept it. When the Arabs will be willing to live in real peace with a Jewish state as their neighbor then all will be resolved.
They can not all be hospitalized. Insanity is not the same as crazy. The world is filled with people who have flawed thinking and crazy ideas, but the vast majority of them must still be accountable for their ethics and actions and ideologies. After dragging an old man in to a locked room, just how did he plan to "Extract" this "Confession"? How will he try it next time? How will the next ten nuts try it? More of us should be ready to give them a 45 caliber "cure" should they make such an attempt.
all palestinan in gaza and the west bank why he dosn't speak about the final solution planned for the palestinian in progress "long night"" is the true story night is fiction to milk the german cow
My great-aunt survived the Holocaust. Her husband and children were all killed. Then her brother was killed by Stalin in 1952. So what did she do? She came to the USA, married a new man, raised two smart kids, and lived her life. Did she run around the country yelling and screaming about her victim status and how much she suffered? No. She started life again and worked hard. Maybe Elie Wiesel should learn a lesson from my great-aunt and get over it. The Holocaust was 62 years ago...maybe its time for all of us to let go.
Are you saying that the Nazi's who wished to kill every Jewish person on earth, allowed YOUR relative (even one) to be "bought" out? Wow....interesting.
Are you crazy? "victim status"? I would like to see you go through a day of what Wiesel suffered. He went through years of it. You just don't get it. My great grandfather was in a concentration camp for a few months before my family was able to buy hm out (before the final solution) and he came back a different man. You just don't get it. Try being a little bit more sensitive to a man who was put through hell instead of taking the side of some crazed lunatic.
this guy is clearly nuts. weisel should accept his appology, understand that his attacker is ill, and move on. but knowing weisel, he will turn this into a big stink..as hhe already has. im sure the charges against this guy could bring him 25 years to life. all weisel has in his life is his "victim" status..and he will milk it till the cow is dry.
Jew-hatred is not a mental illness; it's a long-standing tradition !!