MYSTERY OF A CONVICT.

Mataura Ensign, 25 January 1911, Page 5

MYSTERY OF A CONVICT.

The St. Petersburg ileteh' publitihes a telegram announcing the death in the Zarantui convict establishment in Siberia oi Sazonoff, the ltiun who threw the bomb that lulled M. de Plehve, but whethpf Sazonoff s death was the result of Hogging or whether he subsequently committed suicide is not clear. A member of the Duma for Siberia (a Renter telegram states) has rc<tiv<-d the following despatch : -- "In the Zaiantui Prison, as the result of eorjKiral punishment, numerous suicides ha/e begun. Sazonoff is already dead.'' A singular mystery surround* the identity of Sazonoff. M, de Plehve, who as Russian Minister of the Interior was notorious for the ruthlessiics* of his methods of repression, was killed by a Ik mb in a St. Petersburg t-trect on July 28, 1904. The assassin, \\ h<> was slightly wounded, was arrested. The iK»lice announced that he was a certain Porozneff, that lie lad made a confession and that he dud of bis wounds. Later contradictory official statements were made. The prisoner was stated not to have died and not to have confessed. On August 19 he was identified as a certain Sassonotf. and on August 21 as a student named Matveyeff. The prisoner was sentenced under the name of Sawmoff on December 13 with an accomplice, Sikorsky. Nevertheless, the opinion hag lieen wi<ioiy held that the real Sazonoff who threw the bomb escaped with the connivance of the inner circle of the secret police and with the knowledge of the notorious "provocative agent," A&en', who i* charged with having organised the plot against Plehve in order to increase bis influence with the Terrorists whom he betrayed. Sar/)noff is said to have lived since in Switzerland, France and England, and to have often visited HusNJa.