SIXTEEN PLEAD GUILTY

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 359, 21 May 1928, Page 9

SIXTEEN PLEAD GUILTY

PLOTTING AGAINST SOVIET GERMAN MAKES ADMISSION (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian P.A.—United Service) Reed. 9.5 a.m. MOSCOW, Sunday. The Tass Agency states that 16 o£ the Don Basin accused pleaded guilty tc plotting against the Soviet. Twentyfour, including the Germans Otto and Meyer, pleaded not guilty, and 13 partly guilty, including the German Badstieber, who confessed to assisting to deliver inefficient machines. A London message of Saturday read: The Moscow representatives of the British United Press Association says that beneath the blaze of arc lights, and with loud-speakers gaping from the walls, the trial has begun in the Trades Union Hall of three Germans and 50 Russians charged with plotting an economic counter-revolution at Donetz, in the Don coal basin. Professor Vishinsky is presiding over a bench of five, two of whom are workmen and one a Donetz ! miner. The evidence, which concerns the alleged relations of the accused with the Governments of France and Poland, is being taken in camera. The prosecutor to-day sarcastically rejected a request to summon a German witness. He said that if accused’s employers came to the Court they should come as prisoners, not as witnesses. If the accused are found guilty the penalty will be death. The Soviet papers foreshadow harsh treatment of the men. The “Izvestia” says the Donetz plot was a prelude to an open armed attack on the Soviet. A message from Berlin says the German newspapers prepare their readers for a farcical trial, the result of which, they say, will certainly be inimical to the relations between Germany and Russia. The three Germans belonged to a party of six engineers who were sent to Donetz in connection with a big electrical contract.