2,900 GREEKS UNDER DEATH SENTENCE

Grey River Argus, 10 May 1948, Page 5

2,900 GREEKS UNDER DEATH SENTENCE

(Rec. 11 p.m.) , ATHENS, May 9. M. Tliens Rentis, a former acting-Minister of Justice said that 157 persons were executed during the eight months M. Ladas, the assassinated Minister of Justice was in office. M. Rentis added that there were 2900 persons under sentence of death in Greece.' “Tn upholding the law, we are assuming the responsibility of preventing in Greece what happened in Palestine, ” M. Michael Ailianos, the Greek Minister of Information, commenting on criticism of the executions, said. It was unjust to pretend that the recent executions resembled those which 11 often happen in totalitarian countries, or countries run on Communist lines. ’ ’

Accused persons in Greece were tried publicly, and given all legal assistance. “The recommendations to the Greek Government to stop the executions, indicate an ignorance of tne fundamental principles of the Greek democratic regime ,in which the judiciary is separate from the executive,' he said. “The Government is powerless to stop the executions.”

Gruesome Find in Greek Guerrilla Mopping-up Operations

(Rec 9.0) ATHENS. May 8. The entire Athens press; quoting official sources, stated that Greek soldiers, during mopping up a guerrilla stronghold at Rtumeli, have discovered the bodies of 42 infants, apparently strangled to death. The reports added that the babies belonged to women whom the guerrillas nad taken as hostages. BRITISH WARNING A British Foreign Office spokesman said that Britain had warned Greece against giving the impression that the execution of rebels was a reprisal for the assassination of the Justice Minister, M. Ladas. He added that Britain was not intervening on behalf of rebels condemned to death for murder and had never sought to prevent the execution of persons charged with civil crimes. Britain intervened in cases where death sentences were passed

on political charges “which seemed groundless.” In Athens to-day, the Acting Minister of Justice (M. Rendis), announced that the Greek Council of Pardons rejected 500 out of 1100 applications for mercy submitted .by people charged with crimes during 1944. The files concerning 1800 others had not yet readied the council. Of the 500 applications rejected, the sentences on 200 had already been carried out. ; The Prime Minister (M. Soufoulis) has denied reports of mass executions of Communists in Greece. He also denied that the recent executions of Communists in Greece. He also denied reports of mass executions were a retaliation for the assassination on May 1 of the Minister of Justice, M. Ladas. He added that tne Cabinet had adopted the decision to clear all files of convicts who baa been sentenced to death a long time before the assassination. DEMONSTRATION IN ITALIAN SENATE ROME, May 9. Calls- of “long live the martyrs of Greece” from the Left Wing, followed by “long live the Italian prisoners in Russia,” from the Right ( Wing, rang out in the new -Senate last night. The demonstration started when the Communist ex-president of the Constiuent Assembly, Signor Terraccini, questioned the Prime Minister, Signer de Gasperi’s action in giving hospitality to a group of Greeks who had been expelled from the. Argentine beause of their “opposition to the Greek Government.”