Portuguese rabbi who ‘helped Roman Abramovich to get citizenship’ is arrested in Porto
ROMAN RABBI
PORTUGUESE police have arrested a rabbi they believe helped Roman Abramovich to get citizenship last year.
Officers swooped on rabbi Daniel Litvak as part of an ongoing inquiry into how the Chelsea owner added the new Portuguese passport to his Russian and Israeli ones.
Officers from Portuguese criminal investigation agency PJ are looking into the legalities of Abramovich’s new passport.
In a statement, Porto’s Jewish community denied any wrongdoing and said it is was the target of a “smear campaign”.
It said that rabbi Litvak oversaw the department that certifies Portuguese nationality on the basis of criteria that “have been accepted by successive governments”.
Abramovich was given the passport in 2021, based on a Portuguese law which offers naturalisation to descendants of Sephardic Jewish people.
