MURDERED WRONG MAN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17034, 7 May 1923, Page 9

MURDERED WRONG MAN.

I A SOVIET CRIME. By Telegraph—Pr*»i Association—Copyright Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. | LONDON, May 5. i An amazing drama of secret documents, revenge and Communist am. Soviet intrigue wili come to light in a case shortly to be heard in the Italian courts. A peaceable Italian merchant, Signor Toinuzi, entered .i third class compartment of a direct, train from Rome to Prague. Thei wore three. other jassengers in the compartment. Toniuzi went to sleep and was awakened a few hours i’aWr by feeling a wet handkerchief being pressed against his month. Realising that he was being chloroformed, h • closed with hi.s assailant. During tlie struggle, he was a tab bed by a man, who rushed into the corridor of the car. from which he emptied his revolver into Jomnei, who was killed by the first bullet. His assailant jumped from the train. ■ It was proved that the other two j nfteted with the affair. The police, j however, arrested a passenger in anj other compartment, who was seen to i throw object* from a window, also a man who was found next morning lying on the track unconscious, and with a broken leg. The police discovered on the line five handkerchiefs soaked with chloroform, together with a dagger and a revolver. The arrested persons proved to be students and membei s of the Italian Communist Party. So far the affair was thought to be merely an attempt at armed robbery, but a new development arose through the arrest of tlie secretary of a Turkish general, who was living in a luxurious villa on the outskirts of Rome. He is charged with absconding with the pro ceeds of the sale of a rare Smyrna ring, which he had been entrusted* to sell. ’ The secretary asserted that the general was the secret agent of the Soviet, who had been entrusted with the task of murdering a Turkish cap tain. Hassan Fuzzi Nuri. who was one of the passengers by tho Rome to Prague train on the night that Tomuzi was murdered. According to the secretary. Hassan was suspected by the Soviet at Moscow of being in possession of important Bolshevist documents, which lie was ttoing to dispose of tc the Secret Service of a Foreign Power, and the general had been instructed to catch him. dead or alive, and so secure the documents. Two of the arrested persons have now confessed that they were instructed by the Communist Party, at the request of the general, to follow Hassan from Rome to Prague, and kill him. hut in the darkness they mistook Tomuzi for Hassan. and killed the wrong man. The Italian Government is reported to be taking steps against the Turk ish general, also another Turk and two Egyptians, but the latter three ana Hassan have so far not been found. | In the meantime, the two arrested men will stand their trial, and wili make the strange defence narrated.