Five former government officials in Slovakia have been sentenced to long prison terms on charges of collaboration with former Foreign Minister Clementis in a trial which was characterized by anti-Semitism, it was reported here today. It was also reported that Jews have recently been arrested in Prague and Pilsen.
The five men convicted at Bratislava were identified as Hussak, former Chief of Government; Daniel Okali, former Minister of Justice; Holdos, once a high official in the Ministry for Religious Questions; Horvath, formerly chairman of the Slovak Parliament; and Novomesky, one-time Education Minister. They received prison terms ranging between 10 years and life.
All were accused of having favored Jews and Jewish organizations. Mr. Okali was specifically charged with having protected groups of Zionists, and of having failed to prevent them from acting as agents of “Western imperialism and espionage.” He was also said to have failed to bring to trial “Jewish collaborators of the Fascist secret service police and the Gestapo, to have sabotaged an investigation of the Joint Distribution Committee–permitting “dangerous Zionists to escape–and to have allowed the illegal transfer of capital by Zionists and “Jewish capitalists.”
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.
