SPY TRIAL IN BUDAPEST

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 112, 24 February 1950, Page 3

SPY TRIAL IN BUDAPEST

EVIDENCE TO BE STUDIED RECORDINGS MADE BY AMERICAN LAWYER (N.Z.P. A.—Copyright) LONDON, Feb. 23. The “Daily Mail” says that recordings of the evidence of Edgar Sanders, a British subject, and Robert Vogeler, an American, who were sentenced by a Hungarian Court on charges of espionage, have been brought, to London so that the trial may be reheard by a committee of international laAvyers. f f The recordings Avere taken l?y an American lawyer, Mr Morris Ernst, from broadcasts by the Budapest radio. According to the “Daily Mail,” Mr Ernst says that the evidence on Avhich Sanders Avas sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment and Vogeler to 15 years’ imprisonment “plainly contains 85 ridiculous errors.” The Hungarians refused Mr Ernst a visa to defend Vogeler at the trial. Mr Ernst said to : day that four witnesses on whose testimony most of the cnarges Avere based, Avent through the witness box in 12 minutes. Mr Ernst added: “This is the most disgraceful trial that the Avorld’s law has ever heard. The so-cabed trials in Germany immediately before ihe war and the inquiry into the Reichstag lire were* Aveli-conducted legal tribunals compered with the Budapest farce.” “i'tif United States State Department »s gathering information io expose ultra-modern tortures devised by the Communist nations to wring socalled confessions from political prisoners,” says the Washington correspondent of the United Press. - “.Diplomats believe that the disclosure ;of brutal techniques which have been developed by the Russian secret police will prove revolting to the entire civilised Avorld. “The State Department has been studying the subject since the trial in Hungary last year of the Primate of Hungary (Cardinal Mindszenty).”

MAJOR DIPLOMATIC INCIDENT NOTES TO BRITAIN AND U.S. (Rec. 9.40) BUDAPEST, Feb. 23. The controversey over the SandersVogeler trial appeared to-night to be mounting swiftly in,to a major diplomatic incident as the Hungarian Government demanded in Notes to the British and American Legations here that Britain and the Unitdcl States should reduce their diplomatic staffs. The Hungarian Foreign -Ministry also suggested that the two legations should draw “the logical conclusion” from the fact that a number of British and American officials in Budapest Avere mentioned in evidence at the trial. The Notes recalled that ttvo businessmen, Sanders, an Englishman, and Vogeler, an American, had pleaded guilty to charges of espionage and sabotage. The Note to the British Legation accused it of having been a transmission centre for getting espionage out of the country. It said that under the pretext of cultural aertivity, the Budapest branch of the British Council had helped espionage activities. The Note to the United States Legation made similar charges.