Search JTA's historical archive dating back to 1923

Recanting Murder Confessor Grilled

February 11, 1934
See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date
Advertisement

Abdul Mejid, Arab convict, who first confessed to having murdered Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff, afterwards withdrawing his confesion and declaring that Abraham Stavsky and Zvi Rosenblatt, two of the defendants accused of the murder, offered him £1,000 to confess to the murder, was on the witness stand all day. Cross-examined by horace Samuel, counsel for the defendants, Mejid admitted that Prosecutor Shitrit had warned him that if he persisted in confessing the murder he would be hung and that he there upon withdrew his confession and swore before a magistrate that his entire confession was a falsehood.

Defense counsel Samuel Claimed that the police had unduly facilitated the recantation although he did not assail the genuiness of the confession. Abdul Mejid proved to be a fluent Hebraist, repeating with ease a number of Hebrew expressions.

Recommended from JTA

Advertisement