Haiti Spy Charges KNOX PLEADS NOT GUILTY

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31758, 15 August 1968, Page 15

Haiti Spy Charges KNOX PLEADS NOT GUILTY

(N.Z P. A.-Reuter—Copyright) PORT-AU-PRINCE, August 14. David Knox, Director of Government Information in the Bahamas, pleaded not guilty in Port-au-Prince yesterday to five espionage charges and one of actions against the external security of Haiti.

Knox, who has been held here since June 1 after leaving Nassau, apparently for a Jamaican holiday, appeared in Court for the first time on Monday and heard six charges read out, linking him with an attempted invasion of Haiti and a bombing raid on Port-au-Prince.

Standing behind a metal table before five uniformed judges at the military court, Knox repeated: “I plead not guilty,” as each charge was read out.

Earlier he had told the Court he objected to the preamble to each charge describing him as an agent of M.L 5 of British intelligence. In a firm voice he said: “I declare before this Court and before God that I am not a member of M.L 5 and that I have never been a member of M.L 5 and the British Government has already told the Government of Haiti that this is the case.”

The president of the tribunal, Colonel Jacques Laroche, replied: “The Court takes this into consideration.” Knox also objected to being described as a national of the South African Republic.

“I declare that I am not a national of the Republic of South Africa and that the sentiments that were expressed in Court yesterday by

the prosecutor (LieutenantColonel Frank Romain) about South Africa are shared by me entirely. I am an enthusiastic supporter of multiracialism,” he said. Colonel Romain had criticised the South African Government for “discrimination against coloured people.” The first witness, the Port au Prince police chief. Colonel Frederic McArty, told the Court he arrested Knox after being told he had sought out a surgeon to have a scar put on his left cheek.

He said Knox told him he had business in Germany and Arabia “where men with scars are regarded as heroes.” He had tried to have the scar done in Miami and Kingston but the surgeons refused. Colonel McArty said Knox then offered him SUSSOO to let him go. Some of the spectators, mostly soldiers in uniform, hissed at the statement. The Court has adjourned until today. The semi-official newspaper, “Le Nouveau Monde,” commented that Knox—Director of Government Information in the Bahamas, on trial here for espionage—would learn to his cost that Haiti did not tolerate imitation James Bonds. “Le Nouveau Monde’s” commentary said: “David Knox will learn to his cost that it is only on the screen and in fiction that we tolerate those who play a poor role of James Bond—-007—on a strategic mission.” Drawing analogies from the works of Rudyard Kipling and W. Somerset Maugham, the newspaper commentary suggested comparisons with the “fine flower of the British Intelligence service” and with the career of the “great spy Philby.” The newspaper continued: “It is not at all surprising that an Englishman like David Knox, who has been around a lot, should be drawn to the idea of taking part in a plot or an invasion to overthrow the Constitutional Government of the only black republic In the Americas since he is also a citizen of South Africa.”