“INVOLUNTARY HOMICIDE”

Taranaki Daily News, 1 October 1929, Page 9

“INVOLUNTARY HOMICIDE”

DEATH OF AN ALLEGED SPY REMARKABLE. GERMAN CASE CONTROVERSIAL JUDGMENT By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright. Australian Press Association. Received Sept. 30, 9 p.m. Times. London, Sept. 29. The trial at Berlin of Lieut. Eckermann, who ordered the execution of Beyer believing him to be a French spy and regarding the execution as legally justifiable as he sought to avert Beyer’s attack ■on the Reich, has been concluded, reports the Times’ correspondent. ‘There were inadequate grounds for Eckermann’s belief; therefore he committed involuntary homicide, but this falls within the amnesty of 1928 remitting sentences for acts done from political motives.” Such was the remarkable verdict of the court, ending what was believed :o be the last trial in connection with the Black Reichsw’ehr, the fo-mer secret illegal reserve which provided a long series of murder trials in which its members were accused of killing their comrades suspected of treachery. Lieut. Eckermann was extradited from Gautemala in 1919 and accused of murdering Beyer. In 1923 the court awarded costs against the State. The Nationalist Press rejoices at the verdict, declaring it proves the so-called murders were due to love of the Fatherland. The Republican newspapers express the opinion that it is not a legal judgment but a political move.