Gerold Frank, Jewish Telegraphic Agency correspondent who has been accompanying the Anglo-American inquiry committee since it left the United States, and Yehuda Hellman, correspondent of the Palestine Post, were arrested here last night by Lebanese secret police, but were subsequently released. However, Hellman is still under house arrest.
Frank, who is an American, and Hellman, a Palestinian, share a room in the Normandie Hotel, which is also the residence of Joseph Hutcheson, James MacDonald and Lord Morrison, the sub-committee of the inquiry group which is visiting the Levant States. Police refused to disclose the charges against the two men, but earlier in the day Hellman had been informed that the Palestine Post had been barred from Lebanon is a “Zionist product.”
About seven o’clock last night, while Frank was alone in his room, police agents entered and asked him to accompany them to headquarters. When he arrived, he found Hellman sitting there under guard, having been arrested a few minutes earlier.
A police guard warned the two not to talk to each other. After about ten minutes, an officer entered and told the two correspondents to return to the hotel with him. Frank was kept down in the lobby under guard, while Hellman was taken to their room for further questioning and searching.
Shortly afterwards, the guard returned Frank’s passport, and apologized profusely, declaring that “we have been looking for that man (Hellman) for three days.” Frank pointed out that Hellman had been in Damascus on Sunday, had stayed at the Orient Palace Hotel, one of the best known hotels in the city, had driven to Beirut in a public taxi, and had registered at the Normandie openly. To which the guard retorted: “Well, we are searching him for something. Maybe we will find it.”
After about 45 minutes, the officer in charge returned to the lobby, apologized, said: “We are taking good care of the committee. I hope they appreciate it.”
POLICE SEARCH CORRESPONDENT’S LUGGAGE FOR ARAB
Hellman was released about a half-hour later, after the police had searched his clothes and luggage, and had questioned him as to whether he had any arms. His papers and identity card were taken from him. The members of the sub-committee took an interest in the proceedings and Hutcheson and Morrison both told Hellman that they were glad he had been released.
However, about an hour later, police again approached Hellman, and told him that he was under protective custody and could not leave the hotel. But they insisted that he was not under arrest.
Whatever the reason for Helluman’s arrest–and it may be the fact that he was seen talking to a member of the sub-committee on Sunday in the lobby of the Orient Palace Hotel in Damascus–the committee has seen evidence of how free and easy is life in an Arab state for a Palestine Jew.
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.
