A NIHILIST TRIAL.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2825, 14 April 1882, Page 3

A NIHILIST TRIAL.

The great trial of 20 Nihilists began in St. Petersburg on Feb 21, in the Central Court of Justice, before a special Court composed of four judges and four representatives of the noble and peasant classes, presided over by Senator Deher. Originally there were 23 prisoners, but two—namely Zishine and the woman Olovienikcff—have gone mad and cannot be produced. Strange rumors of ill-treatment are being circulated, as the cause of their non appearance, and as the proceedings are secret, and nothing is officially published,suspicions of this kind are certain to be entertained. There are 16 advocates for the defence drawn from the first ranks of the Russian criminal Bar. The voluminous bill of indict ment, comprising the 11 great Nihilist crimes of the last five years, was read through rapidly by the Chief Procureur, Murawieff, assisted by the Second Procureur, Ostrofsky, all the prisoners being present, ranged in two rows in the dock. By 3 o’clock in the afternoon this part of the great [formality, as the trial must really be called, being the perusal of no fewer than 50 foolscap pages of small print, was fully completed, when an interval of half an hour took place. No political trial in Russia has hitherto been conducted with such, secrecy, severity, and disregard of of the ordinary usages of legal pro cedure. With the exception of the Minister of Justice, M. Nabokoff, and Prince Donato, there was nobody of importance present. Even the privileged public, such as the high officials and members of the Bar, were altogether excluded and most of the seats in the Court were empty. After the Bill of Indictment had been gone through, the prisoners were not allowed to he present again in Court altogether. The President insisted that they should he tried separately, one by one, or in groups according to their crimes, and, besides this, the prisoners were at once forbidden by the Court to speak or write to each other while all together in the dock. All the advocates were completely surprised by being told that they were not to hold any communication with their clients during the trial. Both counsel and prisoners made a protest on this head, which was ultimately acceded to with reluctance. In this respect the Prlfcureur stood on the side of the advocates. Some of the prisoners also protested against being tried separately, but in vain. All the prisoners pleaded guilty, except Morose® and Arontchik, on whose account several witnesses testified in proof of an alibi. These two are accused of complicity with Hartmann in the explosion of the Moscow Railway. Barranikoff, who is accused of being one of the assassins of General Metzontsoff, declared that the Nihilist Michailoff who was banged as the man who drove the assassins, was not the coachman at all. He also said that such persistent attempts to kill the late Czar were made principally in revenge because 196 Propagandists, tried four years ago, were punished more severely than was legal. On that occasion, he said, 800 innocents were arrested, and 80 of them died in prison. The Court rose at midnight.