DEATH PENALTY DEMAND

Taranaki Daily News, 8 December 1930, Page 7

DEATH PENALTY DEMAND

EIGHT RUSSIANS ON TRIAL

FINAL APPEAL FOR MERCY

THEATRICAL PROSECUTORS DENUNCIATION OF FRANCE By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright. "" Rec. 6.30 p.m. Moscow, Dec. 8. J-. Millions of Russians expect the death penalty for eight Russians accused of organising destructive activities against the Soviets wheij the sentence is pro- t mulgated to-morrow evening. < Demanding the death sentence for th® eight accused, the prosecutor Krilenko declared that the trial revealed that the capitalist world was now afraid of the exposure of its preparations for war against the Soviet, which would, frustrate its plane. The prisoners’ confessions had been torture had not been applied. . Krilenko emphasised the complicity of Sir Henri; De terding And "quoted a, speech by him in Paris in which he prophesied the liberation of Russia. Disregarding the judge’s ruling that hostile references must not be publicly made to foreign Powers, Krilenko shook a menacing finger at the defendants and shouted the name of M. Poincare; He aecused M. Poincare of working hand, in glove : with counter-revolutionaries. He said, “If M- Poincare wants to know all the' details of this plot we will let him have them.” He added, “I will let him know that our people are ready for the worst. When the time comes we will fight as one man to meet the crisis, armed and prepared.” Confronting the accused, who were stoically smoking dgarettes,. though visions of the firing squad must have been before z their eyes, krilenko demanded that they should all be executed. He denounced them as plotters, grafters and wreckersl He .described as pure fake/French denials of the confessions involving members of the French General Staff. Several reports, he declared, confirmed the conference in Paris between Mr Poincare and the . leaders of the Committee of Russian Industry; |M. Poincare’s attempt, to dismiss the trial as a joke was a trivial political “trick. . If •> Krilenko wound up by quoting extracts from Lenin’s writings advocating death to the enemies of the workers.

The prisoners’ hardly assumed bravado has now given place to fear. Withtheir spirits broken under the terrific, strain of; the trial they have thrown themselves on the mercy of the court in a, desperate appeal for their lives. Fedotov, the oldest, is reported to have said tremulously, “I am guilty. I do not deserve mercy, but I do not want to die a traitor’s death.”

Ramzin, allegedly the ringleader, piti- • fully declared: “We are not such, de-mons-as the prosecutor has painted, us, biii I bow my head in shaxne and ini;/ miliation. I understand, this is my last word. I cannot tell a falsehood a few hours before death. I have confessed fully because I believe it is the only means of atonement for my past sins. We defendants are not here to fight or. to defend ourselves but to capitulate. Sometimes I feel it 'is better to die; - yet there are times when I long to participate in the miracles is destined to accomplish.” . Sitnin with tear-filled eyes advanced, his sufferings as a /plea, for mercy, 1 . He and Kuprianoff hoped they would e> allowed to expiate their crime by honest work.

A talking picture was being taken until the court ordered the machine to be stopped because, its noise interrupted the speakers’ utterances.