FORGERY ADMITTED

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 92, 12 January 1935, Page 7

FORGERY ADMITTED

Accuser in Froge Case

Paris, January 10.

The Froge case appears to be developing into a repetition of the Dreyfus ease. During the first hearing of the appeal Geissmann, one of the principal accusers, admitted having forged an incriminating letter and also that he was a German secret agent as well as a French one.

Captain Froge has now suspended his appeal, and' is applying for a retrial before a jury.

Captain Froge, a French officer with a distinguished record, who was charged with betraying secret army plans to a foreign Power, was sentenced in November to five years’ imprisonment, fined 5000 francs, coupled' with banishment from the Belfort area for 10 years, and deprivation of civil rights for 10 years. Krauss, an alleged German agent and accomplice, was sentenced to five years in prison, and fined 5000 francs. Froge afterward appealed. Frose's accusers were Geissmann, a deserter‘from the Austrian army, who turned police informer, and'Kraiiss, a Polish ex-officer, who admitted that he had been a spy in the service of Germany. Froge throughout protested his innocence, and accused Geissmann of forgery. Krauss stated that lie paid Froge £2OOO for a plan of the air defences of Belfort and other frontier defences. Froge denied association with Krauss, lie admitted operations on the Bourse in which he lost £5OO, but the capital was supplied by relatives. He had ceased to speculate before the alleged meeting with Krauss.

The prosecution said that handwriting experts had identified as Froge’s communications to Krauss which the accused had declared were forgeries.