Artukovic’s Attorney Tells of Threats : Jew Under Attack for Defending Alleged War Crimes Figure

A Jewish attorney defending Andrija Artukovic, accused of complicity in the mass murder of Jews during World War II, says he has been the target of harassing phone calls and anonymous death threats since agreeing to defend the accused war criminal.

His process server for the last 23 years, who also is Jewish, has quit, and he has lost half a dozen Jewish clients who have accused him of being a “renegade Jew,” said Gary B. Fleischman, 50, a former federal prosecutor who is now a Beverly Hills trial lawyer.

“I’ve had dozens of phone calls telling me to drop the case,” Fleischman said. “Two people called and said that if I appeared in court, my car would be blown up when I started it up.”

Fleischman said he had reservations about representing Artukovic when first asked to serve as co-counsel in the case by Ronald H. Bonaparte, the attorney who initially was the sole defense lawyer for the 85-year-old former Croatian government official.

Artukovic is accused of authorizing the Croatian concentration camps in which more than 700,000 Jews, Serbs and Gypsies died during World War II.

Fleischman is seeking to have Yugoslavia’s extradition request dismissed on grounds that his legally blind and enfeebled client is both mentally and physically incompetent to assist in his own defense, and that the charges against him were brought too late to legally prosecute him for war crimes.

“I have my own emotions about the Holocaust,” said Fleischman, “but I’m also an experienced extradition lawyer, and I’ve been a civil rights attorney for a long time. I’m convinced that Artukovic’s civil rights have been destroyed, and he needs the best defense he can get.”

Members of the Jewish Defense League have telephoned him repeatedly to urge that he drop the Artukovic case, Fleischman said. He added that Irv Rubin, head of the Jewish Defense League, and three other members of the JDL came to his West Hollywood condominium about 10 p.m. on Christmas Eve to speak to him, but were escorted out of his building by security guards.

“They have subjected me to verbal abuse, but they don’t really bother me,” Fleischman said. “The JDL, all they do is get nasty and talk silly.

“Somebody who said he was with the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies called me and wanted to know if I would have represented Hitler,” Fleischman continued. “He told me I was doing this (for) the money and the publicity.

“The money is short and the publicity stinks,” Fleischman added. “The issue is his constitutional rights. I take the position that you can’t do this to an old man in America.”

Even though he now believes Artukovic is innocent of the Yugoslav charges, said Fleischman, he took the case when he assumed Artukovic was probably guilty and he would defend Artukovic even if he knew he was guilty.

“I’d have to take a little more Valium, but I’d do it,” Fleischman said.

He “probably” also would have represented Hitler in similar circumstances, Fleischman added.

“If his check cleared,” he said.

Fleischman, a member of the American Civil Liberties Union who describes himself as a “very left, liberal Democrat,” said he understands why many Jews are upset that a Jewish lawyer would represent a man accused of the mass murder of Jews in World War II.

“A lot of Jewish lawyers wouldn’t take it, either because of economic reprisals or their own feelings about the Holocaust,” Fleischman added. “But I’ve been a civil rights lawyer all my life, and I believe I’m obligated to do this.”

Polish Immigrants

His mother immigrated to the United States from Poland with her parents when she was a little girl in the early 1900s because an older brother was in trouble with czarist officials and there was no legal help for Polish Jews, Fleischman said.

“They came here because they couldn’t get him a lawyer--nobody would represent a Jew,” said Fleischman. “I think the Jews who feel Artukovic shouldn’t have a Jewish lawyer should put themselves in his place and ask themselves how they would feel if times changed and being a Jew is again unpopular in this country.”

When told that Fleischman had complained of harassment by the Jewish Defense League, its leader, Irv Rubin, said the group would deliver a live pig to the attorney’s office this morning “which is our Pig of the Year Award. It’s also called our Uncle Jake Award and is given to the person who has done his utmost to hurt Jewish People here and around the world.”

Rubin said Fleischman had returned his phone call only after he phoned “30 times.” “We feel that Mr. Fleischman is worse than a ‘kapo,’ a collaborationist with the Nazis at concentration camps. The bottom line is that the defense of Artukovic is absolutely treasonous to the Jewish people.”

Armand Grant, owner of Southern California Attorney Services, confirmed that he had withdrawn as Fleischman’s process server because of the attorney’s involvement with Artukovic.

“I do have a partner of Israeli extraction whose parents were in the Holocaust, who said he couldn’t sleep nights having anything to do with this,” Grant said.

“Gary’s an old friend of mine, and I would still do anything for him on a personal basis. But I would say it was the consensus of my partners that it was not in the interests of my company to continue our business relationship.”

No Contact From Center

Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies denied that anyone officially connected to the center had called Fleischman, but he said he had referred some Jewish survivors of the Holocaust to the attorney after they called the center to express their outrage.

“There were a number of survivors who called the Wiesenthal Center who were outraged about this, and we suggested to one or two that they tell Mr. Fleischman how they felt,” Cooper said.

“Every defendant has the right to counsel. But many people in the Jewish community are outraged that a fellow Jew would take this case. It’s unfortunate that he did. I think it is inappropriate for a Jewish person to be Artukovic’s lawyer.”

Fleischman said he recognizes that Jewish sentiment against him is widespread, but he added that he believes most lawyers understand his actions.

“I’m an American lawyer first and a Jewish lawyer second,” he said. “If people can’t understand that, there’s not much I can really do about it. I’ve given up explaining myself to most people.”