German Jewish Leader Resigns over Cocaine Scandal

Friedman, a lawyer and journalist is also president of the European Jewish Congress and holds executive posts on the boards of several German and international foundations and German media organizations. He also hosted his own confrontational talk show "Vorsicht! Friedman" ("Watch Out! Friedman".)

Friedman announced he would resign from all his public offices at a Frankfurt press conference on Tuesday morning. He also said he would accept and pay a fine of €17,400 ($19,700) that had been ordered by a Berlin court, a fact that means the 47-year-old now has a criminal record. But the final blow to his career was dealt later on when director of public broadcaster Hessischer Rundfunk Helmut Reize also confirmed Friedman would also now give up his show, currently off air.

"Michel Friedmann has confessed to taking drugs and must come to terms with being properly punished," Reize said after holding private talks with Friedman on Tuesday afternoon. He added, however, that the pair would discuss in the autumn whether Friedman could resume hosting the show next year. A spokesman for the Federal Chamber of Lawyers in Berlin said his conviction would not affect his ability to exercise his profession as an attorney.

"Mistakes"

At the press conference, Friedman acknowledged what he called mistakes. "Drugs in a life crisis, and that includes my life crisis, are no help. They are misleading and dangerous. I say that above all to young people," he said.

Friedman, a member of the conservative opposition Christian Democratic Union, is known for his hard-hitting interviewing style and moralist attitude. He said he applied tough standards to those he interviewed in his talk shows, and said those standards must also be applied to himself. But he added that he, too, was only human.

Having apologized for his actions, Friedman concluded the press conference with two requests: "I ask you, with all my heart, not to forget that this was only a part of my life, only a part of Michel Friedman. My second request is: I apologize to everybody, but I also ask you for a second chance."

Sex and drugs scandal

Friedman became embroiled in the scandal when police investigating a prostitution ring raided his home and offices and found three envelopes containing traces of cocaine. A subsequent test on a sample of his hair is believed to have confirmed that he took the drug "occasionally."

Although state prosecutors ordered a news black-out on their investigations, details of the evidence against him made their way to the mass-circulation Bild newspaper when his lawyers' office mistakenly faxed them to a pizza parlor.

According to Bild, the charges against him included the consumption of cocaine on ten occasions in the presence of Ukrainian call-girls smuggled into Germany by a prostitution ring which is believed to have operated from Poland and the Ukraine.

Fall from grace

A jet-setting lawyer with a reputation for enjoying the high life, Friedman has been the vice president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany since 2000. Last year, he got involved in a high-profile mud-slinging match with the late Free Democrats politician Jürgen Möllemann (photo), who accused Friedman of encouraging anti-Semitism because of his "intolerant, spiteful manner" -- a reference to his often morally rigorous, interrogative interview technique.

In the end, Möllemann, who died recently in a parachuting incident, was himself accused of stirring anti-Jewish sentiment. But in mid-June Friedman, whose abrasiveness has created plenty of enemies, also fell from grace.