RITUAL MURDER TRIAL

Otago Witness, Issue 3111, 29 October 1913, Page 27

RITUAL MURDER TRIAL

" ALLEGED CONFESSION. ' ST. PETERSBURG, October 22. The interest in the ritual murder trial <• centres in Vera Cheberiak, who sits like ■ a Sphinx on the front bench, and is never at a loss for nn answer, M. Krassovsky, a former commissioner of police, gave evidence that he was asked to investigate the murder. He first reported that the murder was committed bank robbers, and he was then asked to investigate the possibility of & ritual murder. He followed many clues, all of ' | which pointed to Vera Cheberiak, whoso boy, Eugene Cheberiak, was friendly with Yush insky. Vera Cheberiak said she had always told M. Krassovsky that Yushinsky was murdered by his parents or was the victim of a ritual crime M. Krassovsky stated that about this time the “Black Hundred” agitation I arose against him, and he was dismissed. A In 1911 he continued the inquiry on hi* own account. Krassovsky’s evidence against Vera Cheberiak and her accomplices for the murder of the boy Yushinsky is regarded as overwhelming. lie found nothing to incriminate Beilish or supporting the theory of a ritual murder. One of Vera Cheberiak’s gang told him that Yashin sky had 'assisted in a robbery at Kioff Cathedral, and that the gang murdered him, fearing treachery. The witness added that Vera’s fiat was the gang’s den, and was utilised to store the plunder they had obtained in the 1905 PogromsOctober 23. <■'{ Council representing the anti-Semite* and the Black Hundred are making desperate efforts to discredit M. Krassovsky. While he was giving evidence the police visited his home and. crossquestioned his sick wife. M. Krassovsky applied for the protection of the court, hut the president replied that tiro mutter was outside his jurisdiction. Cathrine Diakonoff related that Vera Cheberiak introduced her to a gang posing as doctors and professors. A masked man asked her to assist to murder M. Krassovsky, and she promised to do so if th® man would tell her who killed Yushinsky. The man replied: “Vera’s gang.’’ October 27. At the ritual murder trial Singayevsky denied that he had ever seen Y'ushinsky, and lie also denied having confessed to his murder. Rudzineky denied all knowledge of Vera Cheberiak. Both stated that they had voluntarily confessed to a robbery, which was committed on the night of Yushinsky’s disappearance, lest they should be accused of th® murder. They were silent when the counsel for the defence asked how the former precluded the latter. KIEFF, October 25. At the ritual murder trial two detectives corroborating Krassovsky, testified that pretending they were criminals desiring to shield him, they drew from Vera Cheberiak’s brother Singoyeviky, a confession that he and two others killed , Yushinsky. One of these, Rudzinsky, a convict from Siberia, has been brought to Kieff to testify.