POISONING A PRACTICE

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 115, 17 May 1930, Page 20

POISONING A PRACTICE

From a land where j)oisoning is regarded as a regular duty of Court physicians, Dr. Alexander Garabedian has appealed to the League of Nations for protection. Dr. Girabedian states that he was ordered to poison members of the ruling family of Abyssinia. The order is alleged tb: have been given by Eas Tafari, co-Emperor of Abyssinia,.who. was received with unusual Domp and deference. at; theiCouf t*. of St. James and other European Courts two,years ago. Dr. Garabedian was formerly Court physician' to the. ruling family of the African Empire. He has accompanied his formal appeal to the League with MO,pages of documentary evidence- in support- M -';Ms..statements.-.■.■:■ ' V After serving on the staff of the Lausanne Hospital and being a medical missionary-in; the,-Soviet Armenian.'Eepublfc -bf Erivaiiiv Dr. Garabedian was director of the French Hospital at Heracles.!v'::ln November, 1922, he : was called toVAbyssinia and bec'amo personal physician ,ta:Bas. Tafari;and surgeon at the Menelik Hospital All went -well until "October, 1925, when Dr.'Garabedian was invited to tea with .Eas Tafari,'who, says the doctor, niade^a lequest'that1 the Court physician should poison three members of the royal family. Dr. Garabedian explains that poisoning is a common custom in the 'country/and that it is" generally regarded as being one of the principal duties of all physicians. The three proposed victims were: — ■ The Empress1 Zaouditou (now dead), who traced her lineage directly to King Solomon; Woizero Sihin, mother-in-law of. Prince Eas Tafari; and Lidj Yasson, sister of, the. legitimate , heir to the

DOCTOR'S REMARKABLE... STORY

throne, named in King Menelik's will as his successor '■ The heir was a. cousin, of Eas Tafari, and at the time of the poison proposal was kept in prison by Bas Tafari. According to Dr. Garabedian, he not only refused to accede to the request of Eas Tafari but immediately wrote a strong letter of protest. "A copy of the letter is included "with the documents submitted to the League; also,, a cony of "a similar letter written., "after the. second royal command to: poison Kas Tafari's relatives. ■■; , ■ "..-. -...-■, •! Then followed the steady "courting" of the physician by Eas Tafari who paid him every courtesy before renewing in. 1927 his proposal that his relatives be poisoned. On this second occasion the request concerned only the Empress Zaouditou and Woizero ; . Sihin, ;the Prince's mother-in-law. The doctor again refused, and sent a.second letter of protest. .He alleges vthat he was thereupon, subjected to; the most bitter persecution,^ which lasted more than a year before he.could leave the country. The persecution included police raids on his home,-his surgery, and this hospital. He was ordered to be expelled, but before the order was carried out he was exiled in the desert 500 miles from Addis Ababa, the capital. While in hospital1 Dr. Garabedian was refused;permission1 to leave the-country. As an Armenian, without a national government to back him; he had no passport, which' was made the pretext for refusing to allow him toleave. Appeals to the International Bed Cross and other bodies secured.for him a passport. He was permitted to go when he had this, document and since, August, 1928, has been living in Geneva and devoting himself to trying; to obtain redress through the League of Nations. »