TV commentator fined for cocaine possession

FRANKFURT, Germany -- A German Jewish leader and controversial talk show host apologized Tuesday and said he would give up all official posts after he was fined for cocaine possession in a drug scandal that has filled newspaper headlines for weeks.

Michel Friedman, 47, stepped down as deputy head of Germany's Central Council of Jews, where he was the most visible voice of the country's Jewish community. He also gave up his show, the broadcaster announced Tuesday, and was expected to quit as president of the European Jewish Congress.

"I have disappointed people, people in my Jewish community, minorities, people I have worked for more than three decades," Friedman, 47, told reporters in his first comment on the investigation that opened last month. "I can only say -- and I hope that you believe me -- that I will try with all of my power to regain this lost trust."

Prosecutors opened a drug possession investigation against Friedman on June 11, tipped by witnesses being questioned in a broader investigation into a prostitution smuggling ring. His lawyer on Monday accepted a $19,600 fine for 10 counts of cocaine possession, ending the investigation.

"I apologize with all my heart for what I have done. But I also ask you, with all my heart, not to forget that this was not my whole life, it is not the whole Michel Friedman," he said.

Known for mercilessly grilling Germany's leading politicians and personalities on his popular talk show, "Vorsicht! Friedman," or "Watch Out! Friedman." The show was suspended after the scandal broke in mid-June.

Friedman's tangle with the law was fodder for tabloids and even merited discussion in the more serious dailies and weeklies.

Some Jewish leaders suggested that the intense coverage of the investigation had anti-Semitic undertones. Others, including the leader of the Central Council of German Jews, Paul Spiegel, disputed that.

Spiegel told n-tv that the coverage was "not always entirely fair," but "I can't see that the attacks on Friedman, the individual, constitute an attack on the whole Jewish community."

Friedman himself said he could hardly complain about the coverage of his case, given his own hard-nosed interview style.

"In my life as a politician and journalist, I have asked people some hard questions, including about their political mistakes," Friedman said. "Now I have to accept that the same measure is applied to myself."

Friedman found himself in the headlines during last year's election campaign, after the late politician Joergen Moellemann criticized him for fueling anti-Semitism with his "intolerant, spiteful style." The remark was seen as pandering to Jewish stereotypes and a bid to attract far-right votes.

One week before Friedman's drug investigation broke, Moellemann died while skydiving under unclear circumstances that raised suspicion of a suicide.

The son of Polish-born Jews who escaped the Holocaust aided German industrialist Oskar Schindler, Friedman is one of Germany's most prominent Jewish personalities. Tanned and stylishly dressed, he often figures in gossip columns, dates fellow TV celebrity Baerbel Schaefer -- to whom he also apologized Tuesday -- and has been awarded a German government honor.