TRIAL OF TERRORISTS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 94, 15 January 1936, Page 9

TRIAL OF TERRORISTS

Ukrainians in Poland

VIOLENT SCENES AT END

Warsaw, January 13.

Violent scenes marked the conclusion of the trial of 12 Ukrainian terrorists who were alleged to be organisers of the plot which resulted in the assassination of the Polish Jlinister of the Interior, General Pieracki, in June, 1934, by a young Ukrainian printer named Jlacieika, who escaped into Czechoslovakia after shooting General Pieracki in the street.

The trial began in November with 140 witnesses for the prosecution, which suggested that a nationalist organisation to which the accused persons belonged was linked with the organisation responsible for the murder of King Alexander. The three principals, on being sentenced to death, broke out with a stream of invective and shouts of “Long live Ukrainia,” and were carried struggling from the dock. Subsequently it was announced that under the recent amnesty the sentences had been commuted to life imprisonment. Two others were sentenced to imprisonment for life, and the remainder, including a woman, are to serve from eight to 15 years in jail. Large forces of mounted and foot police guarded the courthouse during the trial.

Two young lovers were among the accused —Nicholas Libed, who received the death sentence, and Daria Hnatkivska, a famous Ukrainian beauty, aged 15 years. B The police prevented their parting embrace.