DENOUNCED BY A LOVER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14853, 2 December 1911, Page 2 (Supplement)

DENOUNCED BY A LOVER.

WOMAN CHARGED WITH SPYING.

■ Tub Supreme Court of the Empire at Leipzig, sentenced the Frenchwoman, Mile. Rene?. Thirion, who was arrested in April last;™ a charge of attempted espionage, to six months imprisonment, although the court declared at the same time that she was innocent of the charge brought, against her. j , Mile. Thirion has lived for the, last five years in Germany, and at the end of lata yea/ appeared in Cologne as a teacher of languages. She quickly made herself popular in society in the provincial town and was a particular favorite with the officers of the garrison. In April last she was dcnounced as a spy by her sweetheart, a Gorman .lieutenant, who had purposely ingratiated himself in her affections "with the object of worming out her secrets. Shewas thereupon charged with attempting to secure mobilisation plans of the German army corps for the purpose of transmitting the information to the French War Office. ' : < v After being kept for months in prison she was brought before the Supreme Court, Who heard the case behind closed doors. In delivering sentence, the court said it ftad been proved that the accused was not a French spy. but a respectable teacher of languages, with the best of credentials, and her arrest as a spy was the outcome of a misunderstanding; Nevertheless, she must be sentenced under Paragraph 49a 'of the Imperial code because she once declared herself ready to undertake espionage, although ~ this declaration was not made seriously. , '• V The sentence of six months includes four months already spent in prison.