Suspect held in attack on Nobel laureate

SAN FRANCISCO -- A man accused of roughing up Nobel laureate and Holocaust scholar Elie Wiesel at a San Francisco hotel earlier this month was arrested yesterday, authorities said.

Montgomery Township police arrested Eric Hunt, 22, of Sussex County, N.J. He faces charges that include attempted kidnapping, false imprisonment, elder abuse, stalking, battery, and the commission of a hate crime, according to San Francisco police.

Wiesel, who teaches at Boston University, was a 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 website registered in Australia.

In announcing Friday that a warrant had been issued, San Francisco police did not comment further on the case. Officials did not know whether Hunt had obtained an attorney.

Montgomery Township police had no immediate comment yesterday.

Wiesel could not be reached for reaction yesterday .

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.