German Tv Star in Drug Inquiry
A prominent German talkshow host, Michel Friedman, has volunteered to give a sample of hair for a drug test after police raids on his home and offices in Frankfurt on Wednesday found three cellophane packets containing traces of a white powder subsequently identified as cocaine. Friedman,…
A prominent German talkshow host, Michel Friedman, has volunteered to give a sample of hair for a drug test after police raids on his home and offices in Frankfurt on Wednesday found three cellophane packets containing traces of a white powder subsequently identified as cocaine.
Friedman, famous for his aggressive questioning of politicians, has agreed to step down from his programme while an inquiry takes place.
His lawyer, Eckart Hild, said Friedman was not yet ready to comment publicly on the inquiry.
The German media reported that Friedman’s name emerged during the investigation of eastern European people smugglers, but a spokesman for the state prosecutor declined to comment.
Friedman was born in Paris to parents rescued from the Nazis by the industrialist Oskar Schindler.
He moved to Frankfurt in 1988 and became vice-president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany three years ago.
Paul Spiegel, the president of the Jewish council, said the allegations were a private affair and should not be regarded as having any bearing on Friedman’s work for the council.
Friedman’s confrontational questioning runs counter to the traditionally emollient style of German television.
Last year he found himself in a row about anti-semitism when the politician Jürgen Möllemann – who died in an apparently suicidal parachute jump last week – accused him and the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, of provoking hatred against Jews.