ARAB WORLD LOSES FRIEND WITH GERMAN POLITICIANS' DEATH

Cairo (dpa) - The Arab world has lost a friend, supporter and business man with the death of former German politician Juergen Moellemann.

Arab politicians and business partners in the Mideast welcomed his critical stance towards Israel, which caused political uproar in Germany last year and eventually led to his downfall.

``As president of the German-Arab society, Moellemann was a great advocate of Arab issues and has done a lot to promote economics,'' said Peter Goepfrich, head of the German-Arab Chamber of Commerce in Cairo.

Moellemann had very good contacts, especially in the Gulf countries, and in Lebanon and Syria. ``He was well respected and considered a friend'', Goepfrich said Thursday. `

`Moellemann's death is a great loss for the Arab world,'' said Mahdi Hamad from Jordanian national television. The accusations of anti-Semitism against the former Free Democratic Party (Liberal Party) leading politician were unfair, he said.

Unlike many other German politicians, Moellemann did not hold back his opinions on the Mideast conflict.

The Arab world had few problems with the fact that Moellemann drew a very thin line between politics and business. From Jeddah to Damascus, no-one thought it unusual that the active politician was always promoting his consulting firm WebTec based in the German city of Duesseldorf.

``Sometimes he arrived in his capacity as minister and departed in his capacity as head of WebTec'', said a German businessman who was well acquainted with Moellemann's business activities.

Moellemann used to retreat to the Arab world when things in Germany became too much for him.

As a member of the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament, he travelled to Saudi Arabia in October 2001 for an appointment with an important prince. He spent a longer period in Dubai last autumn.

De mortuis nisi nihil bene...

Out of respect for the surviving family members of Möllemann, I won't repeat what I said about him on previous occasions on this forum.

Here is a brief summary of facts being reported by German media (FOCUS and SPIEGEL).

Thomas Vilter, head of the parachutists' club in Marl, says that Möllemann committed suicide. His main parachute had opened normally at about 1500 to 1600 meters (about 4500 feet) above ground. However, Möllemann then jettisoned the main parachute. The only reason for doing so would be if the jumper has a malfunction; the main parachute needs to be jettisoned before activating the backup chute. However, says Vilter, Möllemann never activated the reserve chute.
This morning, the parliamentary immunity committee of the German national assembly ("Bundestag") recommended that the immunity of Möllemann be revoked.
At twelve noon, the plenary assembly began voting on the recommendation. The agenda item had been kept secret until then; a little more than a quarter of an hour later, the resolution passed unanimously.
Eleven minutes past noon, the public prosecutor in Düsseldorf sent a fax to the media, announcing a massive coordinated raid of Möllemann's premises at 25 locations in 13 cities of Germany, and also in Luxembourg, Spain und Liechtenstein. The prosecutors said that the raids were connected to the investigation of Möllemann for tax evasion, violation of the political party law, fraud, and misappropriation of funds. Nine prosecutors were assisted by some 100 detectives in the raid.
At 10 a.m., Möllemann's closest friend, member of parliament Jürgen Kubicki, received a phone call from Möllemann. According to Kubicki, Möllemann asked him why there were cameras and two cars with Düsseldorf license plates in front of his house. Kubicki then disclosed to Möllemann that the Bundestag would later today strip him of his immunity and that search warrants against him would be executed.
Around 12:10 p.m., a propeller plane takes off from the small airstrip in Loemühle near Marl in Westphalia. Ten parachutists are on board, one of them is Jürgen Möllemann. His companions later describe him as "extremely quiet".
Just before 12:30, the ten parachutists exit the aircraft. Möllemann jumps next to last.
At 12:30 p.m., Möllemann is dead.

Mr. Vilter is also quoted as saying that an average of 300,000 to 400,000 parachute jumps take place in Germany every year. Average annual fatalities are four to five.

Möllemann in undated AP photo.

Möllemann (right) with Guido Westerwelle, head of his FDP party.

In last year's elections, Möllemann campaigned personally with an anti-Israel agenda. A few days before the elections, he mailed out an anti-Israel flyer to millions of households in his home state.

The Möllemann flyer, financed from dubious funds (a principal reason for the investigation by the authorities). Israeli Prime Minister Sharon is pictured on the left, Michel Friedman, the head of Germany's Jewish council, is pictured on the right.

Following publication of the flyer, the FDP finally disavowed Möllemann and took steps to revoke his party membership (which he later resigned). In a book published a couple of months ago, Möllemann claimed that Westerwelle had been blackmailed by the Mossad (Israeli secret service) with the threat of revealing that he is a homosexual.

He was semi-leftist in his younger years (most Germans then were opposed to the Vietnam war; the street demonstrations were often violent).

Later, he got more in line with the economically liberal policies of his party. Some of his public positions were not bad, especially his insistence on deregulation.

However, he kept shooting himself in the foot, which made him not very effective politically. At one time, he was Germany's Secretary of Commerce, but had to resign when it was discovered that he had written a letter of recommendation on official letterhead for a cousin bidding on a project.

In recent years, he was famous (or infamous) for two things primarily: setting a target of 18% for his party in the nationwide elections (they got some six percent), and waging an increasingly vitriolic campaign against Israel, for example by defending Palestinian suicide bombings.

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