Vilnius, 13 August: The leader of Lithuanian Freedom Union's Taurage (western Lithuania) branch and member of the Taurage District Council, radical Saulius Ozelis, has asked for criminal charges to be brought against Efraim Zuroff, head of the Jerusalem division of the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Centre.

A letter to the Lithuanian Prosecutor-General's Office by Ozelis, notorious for scandalous public actions, published on Tuesday [13 August], said that the award of 10,000 dollars in exchange for information about Nazi war criminals residing in Lithuania, which Zuroff offered in early July, "incites ethnic discord and offends the people of Lithuania".

According to Ozelis, such activity by Zuroff was not coordinated with the Lithuanian state institutions. Therefore, the Nazi hunter has no authority to collect information in Lithuania "by way of bribery".

The radical asked the Prosecutor-General's Office to bring charges against Zuroff, conduct preliminary investigation and punish him.

Meanwhile, the Taurage Regional Prosecutor's Office is considering a request by the Lithuanian State Security Department to bring criminal charges against Ozelis for fomenting ethnic hatred during several anti-Semitic actions he staged this year...