British House of Lords, May 2012
British House of Lords, May 2012Photo by Reuters
     

British police have searched the house of the 85-year-old vice president of the World Jewish Congress as part of an ongoing historical sex abuse investigation.

Lord Greville Janner, a former Labour member of parliament and current member of the House of Lords, was not arrested in the raid in his apartment in the Barnet borough of north London, the Mirror Online reported.

"Officers have executed a search warrant at a property in Barnet, London, as part of an ongoing criminal enquiry,” a police spokesman said.

Janner's lawyers told the Mirror that their client had been “assisting the police with their inquiries."

Janner, born in Cardiff, Wales to Jewish parents, was a Labour MP for 27 years and was known as a staunch supporter of Israel. He joined the British peerage after his retirement in 1997, becoming Baron Janner of Braunstone.

The lord served as the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the main representative body of British Jews, and was a key figure in the efforts to seek reparations for victims of the Holocaust.

According to his website, the Cambridge and Harvard educated lord speaks nine languages and is a member of the Magic Circle, a British organization dedicated to promoting stage magic.