MOSCOW TRIAL

Stratford Evening Post, Volume II, Issue 225, 21 April 1933, Page 6

MOSCOW TRIAL

SUMMARY OF PROCEED-

INGS

Issued hy Foreign Office

FINDINGS AND SENTENCES

Press Association— Copyricht

Rugbv, April 19.—-Tun Foreign Office has issued the following suiiimnry of the findings and sentences in the Moscow trial:

The findings were divided into four sections, namely, wrecking at Zlatovst, at Zuevka, at Ivanovo and at the electrical stations at Mosenergo. Under the first

heading Gusev and Sokolov wcrr convicted, both of wrecking and of collecting secret information under W. H. McDonald's instructions and receiving bribes from him. MacDoaald was convicted under the same '.leading and was stated to have been acting under W- H. Thorn ton's instructions. Under the second heading Kokiarevsky was convicted of machine-wrecking and receiving bribes from MacDonald. Under the third heading Lobanov, Lebedev and Charles Nordwall were convicted of machine-wrecking and giving or receiving bribes. Zivert was convicted of receiving bribes from Thornton for machine-wrecking under the same heading. Under the fourth heading Shukhoruchkin, Zorin and Krsashetnimikov were convicted of wrecking under Thornton's instructions and receiving bribes from him. Thornton was convicted of organising machine-wrecking through these men, and elsewhere through MacDonald. Nordwall and John Cv.chny, and of carrying on espionage through MacDonald, Cushny and others. Alan Monkhouse was convicted on grounds of complicity with Thornton's acts and of bribery of Soviet citizens for concealing defects in Vickers machinery. Cushny's and Oleinik's convictions of wrecking and providing Thornton with secret information were dealt with under the same heading.

Madame Kutosava's Complicity Madame Kutosova was convicted of complicity in Thornton's activities and transmitting bribes from him for criminal purposes. The Court said the sentences would be based on the provisions of the decree of March 14, stating that "Soviet State employees convicted of wrecking are subject to mora severe penalties than employees of private enterprises." Gusev, Shukhoruchkin and Lobanov were sentenced to ten years' deprivation of liberty with loss of civil rights for five years and confiscation of properly. They were not condemned to be shot because their criminal wrecking activity did not cause serious damage to Soviet industry. Sokolov, Zorin and Kotkiarevsky were sentenced on the same basis to eight years' deprivation of liberty with similar additional provisions. Krsashetnimikov was sentenced on the same basis to five years' deprivation of liberty with loss of civil rights for five years, without confiscation of property, "because he was only a tool in the hands of Lobanov." f Lebedev was sentenced to two years deprivation of liberty without loss of civil rights and without confiscation of property

Employees of Vickera f Thornton was sentenced to three years' deprivation of liberty. In MacDonald's case it was declared that, since he was acting "on the instructions of his immediate chief Thornton and in consideration of his honest confession," the measure of repression demanded by law was limited to two ynrs' deprivation of liberty. In Monkhouse's and Nordwall's case, since they did not take a direct share in machine-wrecking at the electrical stations, and in Cushny's case, since his crime was committed as long ago as 1928, the sentence was declared to be limited to expulsion for five years. Oleinik and Madame Kutosova, in consideration of their dependence on Thornton and the fact that they were employees of a private firm, were sentenced to three years and one and a-half years' deprivation of liberty respectively, in each case without loss of civil rights and without confiscation of property. In the case of Zivert, in consideration of the fact that : ince 1931 he had shown that he had "broken with the wreckers," it was stated that no measure of repression would be applied and he would be liberated. Gregory was declared acquitted on the ground of insufficiency proofs. Nordwall on returning to Britain will be accompanied by his wife, whose application for release from Soviet citizenship was granted to-day.