Harry Männil

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Harry Männil is an Estonian businessman, art collector and known cultural benefactor in several countries, including Venezuela where he has been residing for the past 60 years. Mannil has been a prominent entrepreneur in the automotive industry in the U.S.A and Venezuela. He has been awarded several condecorations and recognitions by Estonia, Venezuela and other countries for his endevors in the cultural sector.

[edit] Biography

Starting in 1994, when Mannil was nominated a member of the Strategic Committee for the Baltic countries with Henry Kissinger, it has been alleged by the Simon Wiesenthal Center that Männil committed war crimes against Jews during the Second World War, when he was working during a period of three months in the Estonian political police in Tallinn in 1941. Before the Soviet occupation of Estonia at the end of WWII, while he was being investigated by the Gestapo allegedly for anti nazi activities, Mannil escaped to Finland an finally went to Venezuela. Harry Mannil has been exonerated of the allegations made against him by Efraim Zuroff (head of the Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem)in 1994, as a result of several investigations conducted in Estonia, Costa Rica and Venezuela. The latest legal findings, from the Attorney General of Estonia, have unleashed a reaction from Mr. Zuroff, who previously wrote letters to the Prime Minister of Estonia in order to launch an investigation into Harry Mannil's activities in Estonia during WWII. In the aftermath, Zuroff has expressed doubts about the Estonian judicial system, and the persecution by Zuroff against Mannil has not stopped, notwithstanding the numerous legal decisions that have declared him innocent.