SABOTAGE ADMITTED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23045, 23 November 1936, Page 9

SABOTAGE ADMITTED

EXPLOSIONS IN MINE • ENGINEER ON TRIAL MOSCOW, Nov. 20. Stickling pleaded guilty to sabotage and explosions causing the deaths of 10 workers. Eight Trotskyites, allegedly associated with him, are being tried simultaneously A mining engineer named Stickling was alleged to have sabotaged a mine in pursuance of instructions from a Fascist organisation to which he belonged. MINERS GASSED MOSCOW, Nov. 21. (Received Nov. 21, at 5.5 p.m.) Allegations that Russian miners were gassed like rats as a result of the sabotage were made at the trial of Stickling. Some of the Trotskyist accused admitted that they neglected to ventilate the mines, and also sought to cause the collapse of tne galleries WRECKING ACTIVITIES FURTHER CONFESSIONS REPORTED MOSCOW, Nov. 21. (Received Nov. 22, at 7.30 p.m.) On the resumption of the sabotage trial the accused Leonenko gave evidence that'he was/promised a motor car, a flat, a gramophone and a camera when he began wrecking work. He added, " I only received the camera." The accused Noskoff gave evidence that Stickling's and the Trotsky supporters' objective was the restoration of capitalism and the establishment of a Fascist regime.

The accused Kovalenko admitted that he used his position as chief engineer of the mine for the purpose of wrecking in gccordanee with Stickling's instructions. The accused Lyaschenko, in evidence, said he sabotaged the ventilation pit and organised the gas explosion. PLANS FOR ASSASSINATION CAR ACCIDENT ARRANGED MOSCOW, Nov. 22. (Received Nov. 22, at 7.30 p.m.) Drobnis, a witness for the prosecution, gave evidence that the accused planned to assassinate M. Molotov, president of the Commissars' Council, arranging with a terrorist chauffeur to drive him, causing an accident which duly occurred, but the car was travelling slowly and M. Molotov was not injured.