TREASON TRIAL Adviser to Brandt

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33878, 25 June 1975, Page 15

TREASON TRIAL Adviser to Brandt

(N Z P A . Reuter—Copyright) DUSSELDORF (West Germany), June 24.

Guenter Guillaume, formerly a close adviser of the former Chancellor, Mr Willy Brandt, will go on trial today on charges of treason and breaches of the Official Secrets Act.

Two weeks after Guillaume was arrested in April, 1974, Mr Brandt resigned, sa'ing that as Head of Government he took political responsibility for the espionage affair. Guillaume, aged 48, is accused of transmitting information to East German intelligence. His wife, Christel, aged 47, will be tried with him in the North Rhine-Westphalia State Supreme Court charged with treason.

Guillaume fled from East Germany in 1956 and became special adviser to Mr Brandt in 1970. West German counterintelligence marked him as a security risk, but Guillaume was given security clearance. If convicted, he could receive between five years and life imprisonment. His wife faces a minimum prison term of one year. The trial is expected to last several months. Cache discovered Turkish police found 400 automatic pistols and more than 160,000 rounds of ammunition when thev stopped and searched a bus at Iskenderun. yesterday. The bus, bearing international plates and registered in West Germany. was apparently on its way from West Germany to Syria and carried no passengers. The driver, a Pakistani, was detained. —Ankara. June 24.