MURDER BY COURTMARTIAL.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXI, Issue LXII, 11 May 1912, Page 9

MURDER BY COURTMARTIAL.

FRANCISCO FERRER

On October 13, 1909, Francisco Ferrer was shot in the trenches of Montjuich, Spain, by virtue of a sentence of the court-martial dated October 9, 1909, which condemned him "as author and as chief of the rebellion" at Barcelona, to the punishment of death, and it was ordered that all compensation for damages caused by the burnings, sackings and deterioration of property should be met and discharged out of the property of Ferrer seized by the authorities. Ferrer's friends have never ceased to proclaim his innocence, and on December 9, 1911, the Supreme Tribunal of War and Marine at Madrid gave judgment that Ferret was not in any way connected with the events of Barcelona, that none of the persons prosecuted in connection with the events acted under his orders, and that in none of the numerous trials (there were some 2000 in number) that followed upon the insurrection has any trace been found either of the participation or instigation of Ferrer. Among the rituals of the Tribunal, No. 6 relates that: "-Considering that Ferrer, not having been condemned in any of the judgments given independently of that for which he was executed, the embargo placed on his property cannot be maintained. The embargo is therefore removed." M. Forand, in whose favor as testamentary executor this decree is issued, has now returned to Barcelona, in order to receive formal possession of some of Ferrer's property at the hands of the civil governor, a fresh decree of the Tribunal having ordained that the books of the Escucla Moderna (115,000 volumes) shall be handed over to the heirs. As the alleged subversive character of the "Escucla Moderna" — in his^latter days the ruling passion of Fei*rer's life —were relied on by the court-martial as aggravating proofs of Ferrer's guilt, this new decree adds fresh reasons for the revision of the trial.