EXECUTED FASCISTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 24793, 17 January 1944, Page 3

EXECUTED FASCISTS

MEMBER OF COURT KILLED PARTISAN REVENGE HINTED (Becd. 5.35 p.m.) LONDON. .Tan. 15 Liei i ten ant-General Dominico Mittica, aged 50, who was a member of the tribunal which passed the death sentence on the five Italian Fascists at Verona, was killed in a motor-car crash while travelling to Milan, says the German overseas news agency. He had fought in Russia, Greece, East Africa and, earlier, in the Italian contingent in Spain. Reports from Milan, however, deny that General Mittica was a member of the tribunal. These reports say that he was killed as a result of a time-bomb exploding in his car. The British United Press correspondent on the Italian frontier says saboteurs are reported to have caused the crash. Pamphlets distributed i?i Milan about the time that General Mittica was killed said: "All the assassins of the Verona trials u ill fall under the blows of the partisans because the judges were defenders of Fascism." The Pope made a vain, last-minute intercession for Count Ciano, say Swiss reports. The Pope also tried to obtain a reprieve for the other four Fascist leaders sent before tlic same firing squad. .The reports add that a written ptba for. mercy was submitted to each condemned man before he wis shot, but each refused to sign it. The Vichv radio states that Carlo Scorza, former secretary of the Fascist Party, and other former members of the party will be tried immediately