Master Spy To Be Witness In Trial

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30559, 30 September 1964, Page 17

Master Spy To Be Witness In Trial

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) NEW YORK, September 28. The lawyer for a husband and wife on trial for their lives as accused Russian spies today unmasked the master Moscow espionage agent the United States Government plans to use as its key witness, United Press International reported. The lawyer, Mr Edward Brodsky, said the “high-ranking officer of the Soviet military intelligence network” the Government has been keeping “under wraps” for nearly a year was Carlo Tuomi, a native of Finland, who apparently became a double agent and spied for the United States as well as Russia.

Mr Brodsky disclosed Tuomi’s name in the corridor outside the Federal Court where the spy trial of Alexandre Sokolov, aged 40, and his wife, Joy Ann, aged 34, opened today.

The day was taken up with defence motions—most of them asking for dismissal of the indictments against the Sokolovs for one reason or another.

The only motion that Judge John F. Dooling granted was one ordering the Government to supply the home address of all witnesses it intends to call in the trial. U.P.I. said it was believed to be an unprecedented order. It meant that the defence would be supplied with the home addresses of nearly 100 F. 8.1. agents, including agents in the Security Division of the Justice Department,

as well as the address where Tuomi has been kept under 24-hour guard to prevent his possible assassination. The United States attorney, Mr Joseph P. Hoey, declined to comment on Tuomi, U.P.I. said.

It was learned that Tuomi went to work for the Russians shortly after the invasion of Finland in 1939. The Sokolovs were seized in their Washington apartment on July 2, 1963. Also seized was a “considerable quantity” of spy apparatus, including radio equipment, cameras and electronic listening equipment.

Suspected conspirators arrested at the same time have since been returned to Russia in exchange for Americans imprisoned in the Soviet Union. Sokolov and his wife are accused of transmitting to Russia, over a four-year period, information on nuclear shipments, troop move-

ments and other military secrets.

Mr Brodsky said he would have other motions before the jury was selected. He was rebuffed on attempts to dismiss the indictments by charging that the Government allowed seven conspirators to leave the country and deprive the Sokolovs of vital witnesses.