Police issue warrant in Wiesel attack
By JULIANA BARBASSA, Associated Press Writer Fri Feb 16, 8:03 PM ET
SAN FRANCISCO - Police on Friday issued an arrest warrant for a New Jersey man suspected of roughing up Nobel laureate and Holocaust scholar Elie Wiesel at a San Francisco hotel earlier this month.
The warrant for 22-year-old Eric Hunt includes charges for attempted kidnapping, false imprisonment, elder abuse, stalking, battery and committing a hate crime, police said.
Wiesel was a featured speaker at a Feb. 1 peace forum at the Argent Hotel. He was approached in the lobby by a man in his 20s who asked for an interview, authorities said.
When Wiesel consented to talk in the hotel's lobby, the man insisted it be done in a hotel room and dragged the 78-year-old off the elevator on the sixth floor, police said.
Wiesel began screaming, and the man fled. Wiesel, who was not injured, then told police.
Police have said they were aware that a man claimed responsibility for the attack in a posting on an anti-Semitic Web site registered in Australia. Police did not comment further on the case Friday.
"We're reserving any comment until the time when suspect in custody," police Sgt. Steve Mannina said.
Wiesel couldn't immediately be reached for comment at Boston University, where he teaches, or through his institute in New York.
There was no telephone number listed for an Eric Hunt in Sussex County, N.J. Police were not aware if Hunt had an attorney.
Wiesel, who survived the Nazi death camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald during World War II, has worked for human rights in many parts of the world and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.