TREASON TRIAL AT SOFIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 8854, 16 April 1892, Page 5

TREASON TRIAL AT SOFIA.

VERDICT OF ACQUITTAL. The trial of Mesdames Karaveloff, Georgiev, and Orechakov, on the charge of treason, took place at Sofia on Feb. 22. The three ladies were accused of having sought, by means of petitions addressed to members of the diplomatic body in Sofia, to invite the intervention of foreign Powers in the domestic affairs of Bulgaria. The memorials in question stated that the fathers, husbands, and brothers of the accused, who had been arretted after the assassination of M. Beltcheff, were being tortured in prison, and called upon the powers to forbid such acts of injustice and cruelty. Mdme. Karaveloff is the wife of the ex-Premier, now in gaol. The public prosecutor was in charge of the prosecution, and MM. Stoiloff, Pomianoff, and Voultcheff, three of the best counsel in the capital, appeared for the defendants. The indictment (the Standard's correspondent says) is partly based on articles in the French papers and in the Moniteur Oriental bearing on the petitions. The public prosecutor argued, in his opening speech, that all the conditions of a crime were present, and that the intention of the accused was to provoke acts of hostility against Bulgaria. At the same time, ho admitted the existence of extenuating circumstances. Dr. Stoiloff, who appeared for Mdme. Karaveloff, demanded the ac quittal of the prisoners on the ground of want of proof. In a long and eloquent speech he described the meritorious conduct of his client in 18S5, and laid stress upon the unhappy circumstances in which she had been placed by the prolonged ira prisonment of her husband. All three accused were acquitted, and were at once released from custody.