BRITON GAOLED FOR ESPIONAGE IN JERUSALEM

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 October 1948, Page 5

BRITON GAOLED FOR ESPIONAGE IN JERUSALEM

(Rec. 11.10 a.m.) LONDON, Oct. 8.

A Jerusalem district court sentenced Frederick William Sylvester, aged 32, a British employee of the Jerusalem Electric Corporation to seven years’ imprisonment for espionage, on behalf of an enemy of Israel and to six months’ imprisonment on each of two other charges, namely, operating an unlicensed wireless transmitter and transmitting without a licence.

Sylvester was one of five Britons seized at gun-point by Irgun terrorists on July 8. He was handed over to the Israeli authorities 10 days later. He stood trial on the espionage charge with William George Hawkins, aged 36, and was freed on September 29.

The president of the court said Sylvester had been found guilty of spying and was liable to 14 years’ imprisonment but the court thought he was not one of the main organisers “of the espionage network.” The president said the Jewish security authorities were guilty of gross negligence because they knew of the transmitter and Sylvester’s broadcasts, but did nothing to stop them. It was later made clear that Sylvester’s seven year sentence was imposed for broadcasting information to the Arab-occupied old city on the results of the shelling of the Jewish area.