TRIAL OF ZIONIST LEADERS IN ROMANIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00810A006100160001-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 19, 2008
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: March 2, 1955
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2008/06/19: CIA-RDP80-0081 OA006100160001-9
Trial of Zionist Leaders in
Rumania
... CENTRAL --- NTELLIGENCE AGENCY
MFORMAUDIM REPO
This material contains information affecting the National Defense of the United States within the meaning of the Espionage Laws, Title
18, U.S.C. Secs. 793 and 794, the transmission or revelation of which in any manner to an unauthorized person is prohibited by law.
DATE OF INFO.
97
2 March 1955
25X1
NO. OF PAGES 2
REQUIREMENT NO. RD
REFERENCES
This is UNEVALUATED Information
DATE DISTR.
1. Among 14 Zionist leaders brought to trial in Rumania in March 1951 the
principals were Mme. Mela Iancu; lawyer Michel (Misu) Benvenisti, also
a member of the World Zionist Council; Dr. Hirsch; lawyer Cohen of
Bucharest; Dr. Haas of Oradea; and a certain Grunberg. They were
arrested in 1950 and until 1952 were kept at the Ministry of the
Interior (MAI) prison, then transferred to the Malmaison prison. The
trial took place in a former private mansion on Strada Nicolae Iorga,
which today houses a section of the Territorial Tribunal of Bucharest.
2. The 14 accused were taken to the Malmaison prison in a prison van,
were provided with black goggles and separated from each other by
Security agents. Throughout the trial, as during the four preceding
years, they were forbidden to speak a single word to each other. The
president of the Tribunal, "the last word, in. judgment", was General
Major Petrescu, who also presided at the trial of Iuliu Maniu and at
the Iron Guard trial during Antonescu'pp'regime. He was assisted by
two assessors, "understudies", who did not say a word during the
entire trial. From the beginning, the trial was declared secret and
the courtroom public consisted of Security officers and agents, all
in uniform.
3. The prisoners had not seen their lawyers before entering the courtroom,
and then were permitted only five minutes' conversation and never knew
the names of the lawyers. The lawyers based their pleas on the
confessions which had been Qigned by the prisoners in their cells.
Several days before the trial began., each prisoner had been summoned
before the prosecutor, Perlea, Security commandant. Perlea drafted
two-page proces-verbaux summarizing each of the prisoners' earlier
confessions, which were originally 100-200 pages long.
4. The prisoners were brought before the judges one by one and after them,
witnesses were called. The witnesses had already been arrested long
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Approved For Release 2008/06/19: CIA-RDP80-0081 OA006100160001-9
 Approved For Release 2008/06/19: CIA-RDP80-0081 OA006100160001-9
before the trial, with the exception of a peasant who testified on
the character of one of the prisoners,'a country doctor. Despite
their testimonies, which were unfavorable to the prisoners, these
witnesses were allegedly implicated later in a new trial and condemned
to various punishments. The prosecutor, a captain, was a former
laborer. The last word was left to the accused who at that time were
all in the courtrocit. The lawyer Benvenisti spoke first, for a half-
hour, acknowledging his crimes, stating that he deserved his fate and
promising that while in prison he would work hard for the good of the
socialist fatherland. The others declared themselves in agreement with
Benvenisti. Mme. Mela Iancu showed the most praiseworthy attitude.
5. The evening of 30 March 1954, the prisoners were transported to the
prison of Jilava where they were separated in an annex to rooms 9, 10,
11 and 12. A week later a court clerk came to read the sentences:
some (Mela Iancu, Benvenisti) were condemned to life, others to 25, 12,
10 and 8 years. None of them had dared defend himself against the
accusations. Before the trial they had each passed before an ad hoc
committee which brought to their attention the fact that should they
confess something different from their original declaration, they would
be obliged to return to the Security for a "complement of information."
In addition, they had been tortured during the inquest. Some of the
tortures were:
a. The accused was tied in a sitting position, wrists fastened to
ankles, and hung from a horizontal bar which passed under the
knees. He was then beaten with rubber bludgeons.
b. Hair and eyebrows were pulled out.
c. Several hours of walking around in a room until the accused were
dizzy and completely exhausted; or leap-frogging around a table
while a militiaman, perched on the table, whipped them.
Approved For Release 2008/06/19: CIA-RDP80-0081 OA006100160001-9