RUSSIAN JUSTICE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 11126, 27 July 1907, Page 1 (Supplement)

RUSSIAN JUSTICE.

ST. PETERSBURG, June .6.

Further information which I have received regarding the trial oL-the alleged participators m disturbances m the Central Prison at Riga last April goes to show that those few prisoners who attempted to escape Were probably killed at the time of the disturbances. The eight men who were sentenced to death on Monday, and. who will be executed to-morrow unless appeal on their behalf is granted, have not been proved guilty of any offence. ' The Court informed the counsel for the defence that they need not speak at length, as their words would not be noticed nor affect the character of the sentence.

The whole trial and the disturbances themselves emphasize tho brutal indifference to ordinary justice for which the Riga prison and the police officials have now become notorious.

Gregus, the police official whose name has been most conspicuous m the torture charges, has not been punished, nor can I discover the names of those forty-two persons who, according to M. Nakrons statement m the Duma, have been, or are to be, prosecuted for maltreatment of prisoners. The priest deputies who have been tried by the Holy Synod for refusing to abjure 'their political convictions, have been handed over the diocesan Courts, which means that they will be unfrocked.

Even the time-serving Russian prelates have for a long time not stooped to such a shameful evasion of conscience as this.