SECRETS BETRAYED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 868, 11 January 1930, Page 9

SECRETS BETRAYED

EXTRADITION FROM FRANCE FOR RUSSIAN FACES SOVIET CRIME CHARGE Reed. 10 a.m. MOSCOW, Friday. It is reliably stated that as Besedovsky, t the writer convicted of a criminal charge, the Soviet will Finland his extradition from France, claiming that he is in nowise a political refugee, despite the proclamation of the death sentence. On November 22 the Soviet sentenced to death in his absence the writer Besedovsky, who betrayed the manner in which it secured copies of international codes. The ground for the sentence was that the condemned man was guilty of treason in disobeying a command to return to Russia, and by so doing deserting to the capitalist camp. His execution was to be carried out within 24 hours of his return to Russia. In the meanwhile all his property was confiscated. Besedovsky laughed at the Soviet s sentence. He said: “They know I will never* return to Russia. I shall retaliate shortly by publishing my memoirs, in which I will give the names of the Soviet spies all over Tne world.” Besedovsky was First Counsellor at the Soviet Embassy and Soviet Charge cl’Affaires in Paris. He quitted the Embassy early in October and placed himself under the protection of the French police in extraordinary circumstances. According to his own account he was accused of “heresy” by Roisenmann, an envoy of the Russian Communist Party and the Ogpu (secret police), and ordered to return to Moscow and submit to an investigation. An attempt was made to prevent him leaving the Embassy building, but he escaped.