HABEAS CORPUS ACTION BY NAZIS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 178, 30 July 1942, Page 5

HABEAS CORPUS ACTION BY NAZIS

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From U-Boats

United Press Association.—Copyright liec. 2 pan. WASHINGTON, July 29.

Habeas corpus petitions on behalf of seven alleged German saboteurs were formally presented to Supreme Court justices to-day. An eighth German accused, George Dasch, was reported to have turned Government witness.

Counsel for the defence submitted that President Roosevelt's proclamation denying the accused access to the civil "courts was totally invalid and unconstitutional. Counsel conceded that all eight of the arrested Germans attended a school near Berlin and received instructions and directions for sabotaging manufacturing and transportation facilities, but declared that all the accused denied that they came to the United States to commit sabotage.

The defence said that the accused were directed not to commit sabotage within 90 days of their arrival in America and to go unarmed and not kill or injure any individual: They brought certain explosives which they buried on the seashore. At the time of the arrest, they had not made plans for committing any sabotage.

The defence asknowledged that all the petitioners were citizens of the German Reich, except Hans Haupt, who had acquired United States' citizenship through his parents becoming naturalised. Haupt contends that his citizenship has not been lost and he denied that he took any oath of allegiance to Germany or joined the German Army or the Nazi party. at all intended to return to America. Upon his return, Haupt applied for a job and registered for the draft and never intended te commit a crime against the United States.

The prosecution said that the accused were recruited by an officer of the German High Command for training in a special school for sabotage work. They were also trained in the use of secret writing for communication to Germany and among themselves in the United States. Upon the conclusion of their training the German Government contracted to pay them for acting on its behalf, and transported them to the United States by the submarines of the German Navy.

On the submarines all wore the fatigue uniform of the German marine infantry, and were told that if they were captured in uniforms while landing they would be treated as prisoners of war. If not captured immediately they were to change into American civilian clothes.

Both submarines escaped the United States naval and other patrols and landed the petitioners under cover of darkness. Three petitioners and Dasch landed near Amagansett, Long Island and the others landed at Ponte Vedra, Florida. Each group brought ashore boxes of explosives, incendiaries, fuses, detonators and timing devices and buried them in the sand near the landing points. Within a fortnight after they landed and while in civilian clothing all seven petitioners and Dasch were taken into custody by agents* of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.