TRIAL BEGUN

Southland Times, Issue 19822, 19 March 1926, Page 7

TRIAL BEGUN

MATTEOTTI MURDER GREAT INTEREST SHOWN ACCUSED NATIONAL HEROES. (Per United Press Association.) Rome, Mar. 17. The trial has been opened of Dumini and four others, who are accused of the wilful, but unpremeditated, murder of Matteotti. The greatest interest is in the defence of Dumini, who has accepted the responsibility for kidnapping Matteotti and conveying him to the country. Dumini stated that he saw that Matteotti was unwell, and stopped the motor car. Afterwards he drove 160 miles with the corpse, which he finally mutilated to prevent recognition. He then buried it. The Judge, in cross-examining the accused with a view to proving that the defence was a fabrication, stated that the finger prints showed that Dumini was inside the motor car, and was not driving. Moreover, Dumini’s deformed arm prevented his driving 160 miles. The Judge added that it was absurd for Dumini to attempt to exonerate the others, because Matteotti .was stabbed to death, and Dumini was bearing the marks of a struggle when he was arrested. Chieti, where the trial is being held, is en fete, the populace regarding the murderers as national heroes.—Sun Cable. Signor Matteotti was a Socialist member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies. On June 10, 1924, he mysteriously disappeared, and his dead body was subsequently found in a wood. It was learned that he had been kidnapped and murdered. The affair created a great sensation throughout Italy, and for a considerable period the Fascisti (headed by the Prime Minister, Signor Mussolini) were in serious danger of losing their hold on the government of the country. The murder was attributed to the Fascisti. Newspapers at the time stated that the deceased was said to have been in possession of certain information relating to State contracts which he intended to disclose in Parliament. Had he done so the cause of Fascism would have been seriously compromised. No crime in recent years so shocked the Italian public. One effect of it was to cause the members of the Opposition to refuse to attend the Chamber of Deputies, and for months Parliament was carried on without them.