SENTENCE ON MR PETKOV

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25272, 26 August 1947, Page 7

SENTENCE ON MR PETKOV

BRITISH MOVES FOR SUSPENSION

REPORTED REQUEST FOR THREE-POWER TALKS

(Rec. 9 p.m.) LONDON, August 25. “Through the Moscow Embassy, Britain has asked Russia to agree to hold ihree-Power talks about the death sentence on Mr Petkov, the Bulgarian OpSosition leader, and has expressed the ope that the sentence will not be carried out in the meantime,” says the diplomatic correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph.” “Britain has sent three letters each urging the suspension of Mr Petkov’s execution before the Allied Control Commission for Bulgaria discusses his case,” says the diplomatic correspondent of Renters.

“The British Minister in Moscow (Mr F. K. Roberts) wrote to Mr Vyshinsky, the Soviet Deputy-Foreign Minister, linking Britain with the United States* protest. The British political representative in Sofia (Mr J. Stemdale Bennett) wrote to the Bulgarian Government denying that the trial and sentence could be a purely internal affair, as Mr Petkov had been condemned for conspiring with a foreign Government. Colonel Green, the British representative on the Allied Control Commission, wrote to General Cherepanov, the Soviet deputy-chair-man of the commission.” In Sofia yesterday Mr Petkov’s lawyer said that Mr Petkov had signed an appeal against the death sentence imposed on him for alleged acts against the State. The appeal would be passed to the Supreme Court to-day. Mr Petkov had until August 30 to appeal