REDUCTION IN PRISON TERMS METED OUT TO THREE JEWS IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRZYTYK POGROM OF MARCH 9, 1936, WAS ORDERED TODAY BY THE COURT OF APPEALS IN A RETRIAL HELD UNDER INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE SUPREME COURT. THE NEW TRIAL WAS THE FOURTH IN THE CASE ARISING FROM THE DISORDERS IN WHICH TWO JEWS AND A GENTILE WERE IMMEDIATELY KILLED AND THREE JEWS SUBSEQUENTLY DIED OF WOUNDS.
SENTENCE OF SHOLEM LESKO, CONVICTED OF FATALLY SHOOTING THE GENTILE, WAS REDUCED FROM EIGHT TO SEVEN YEARS; THAT OF ELIEZER KIRSHENZWEIG, FROM SIX TO FIVE, AND OF ISAAC FRIEDMAN FROM FIVE TO THREE AND A HALF YEARS. ONE AND A HALF YEARS EACH SPENT IN PREVENTIVE CUSTODY WILL BE DEDUCTED FROM THE SENTENCES.
IN ITS RULING, THE COURT EMPHASIZED THAT IN ITS JUDGMENT GUILT OF THE JEWS HAD BEEN PROVED. (THE SUPREME COURT LAST MAY ORDERED RETRIAL ON THE GROUNDS THAT GUILT HAD NOT BEEN PROVED.) COUNSEL FOR THE DEFENDANTS ANNOUNCED IT WOULD AGAIN APPEAL TO THE HIGHEST COURT.
LIGHT SENTENCES OF THREE POLISH DEFENDANTS WERE CONFIRMED BY THE COURT OF APPEALS. TWO OTHER POLES WERE ACQUITTED.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
