DEMAND FOR DEATH SENTENCE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20504, 24 August 1936, Page 7

DEMAND FOR DEATH SENTENCE

TRIAL OF SOVIET TRAITORS GERMAN ACCOMPLICE CONFESSES SUICIDE OF NOTORIOUS BOLSHEVIST Onlted Press Association—Bv Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received August 23, 6.30 p.m.) MOSCOW, August 22. Describing accused as “a murderous and despicable band of mad Fascist dogs and the scum of the underworld,’’ M. Vishinsky (prosecutor), demanded the death sentence. Before Judges of the Supreme Court, presided over by M. V. V. Ulrich, who tried the Metro-Vickers employees case in 1933, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Smirnov and Holamann all pleaded guilty to an indictment which stated that they had inspired a German, Fritz David, in an attempt to shoot M. Josef Stalin at a congress in July, 1935. The plot failed because David was unable to take aim. Similar plots were aimed against M. Voroshilov and other Communist leaders. The Court convicted Leon Trotsky, also his son, of participation in the plot. If Trotsky enters the Soviet he is liable to immediate arrest and trial. Confession of Accomplice The chief evidence to-day was given by a German emigre, Nathan Luria, that he intended to kill M. Stalin’s right-hand supporter, Zhdanov, but was too far from the tribune to shoot him. Earlier he failed at the Kremlin Hospital to get close enough to M. Stalin and M. Voroshilov. The prisoners listened in a state of collapse to the German emigre Fritz David give evidence that he actually pointed a revolver at M. Stalin, but was unnerved by the enthusiastic reception the Congress gave the dictator. He added that the attempt was made on Trotsky’s personal instructions, when David visited him at Copenhagen.