NAZI JUDGES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 January 1943, Page 3

NAZI JUDGES

TAUNTED BY FRENCH GENERAL. SENTENCE OF TEN YEARS’ IMPRISONMENT. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) LONDON, January 10. General de Tassigny, one of France’s youngest and ablest officers, has been sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment on charges of abandoning his post as commander at Montpelier when he heard General Giraud had escaped to Africa, and of- persuading several officers and men to form a dissident unit. The Madrid correspondent of _ the “Daily Mail” says General de Tassigny poured scorn on the German judges who sentenced ; him. He said: “You Germans are France’s only legal enemies. Vichy has broken off relations with Britain and America, but will not dare declare war against the Powers I consider France’s allies. You have no right to try me. I should be judged by my brother officers.” The President of the Court heatedly interjected: “If you insult the court, you will be removed and sentenced in absence?’ General de Tassigny interrupted an angry argument between the judges and defence counsel, saying that the court was illegal because it had not followed the French code, which was not abolished even by Vichy’s illegal decrees. “The crime with which I am charged is not founded in fact or law,” he said. “It is useless to defend myself ,because the court has been ordered to condemn me.”