REMARKABLE TRIAL

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 194, 12 May 1924, Page 6

REMARKABLE TRIAL

OF ITALIAN ANARCHISTS AND COMMUNISTS PRISONERS ENCLOSED IN IRON CAGES By Telegraph—Press Association. —Copyright. London, May 9. The Rome correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” states that one of the biggest trials in the history of Italy has opened at Florence, where 138 Anarchists and Communists are charged with responsibility for the massacre at Empoli on February 28, 1921. As is the custom in Italy, all accused persons appeared in the Court shut up in an iron cage. A special cage had to be constructed to accommodate the accused in this case. The prisoners were all numbered and occupied five tiers of seats, the jury being supplied with a plan of the cage like a theatre plan. Each juror was also supplied with a volume of 276 pages, containing photographs of the accused persons and details of the charges Special dormitories have been built where the prsoners will sleep under a strong military guard throughout the trial, which is expected to last for several weeks, and possibly for months, as there are six hundred witnesses and fifty defending counsel. The jury, at the encl of the trial, will >ave to answer three thousand questions. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.