Aba Achimeier Freed in Arlosoroff Murder

Judge Carrie Denies Motion to Release Two Others

Aba Achimeier, Zionist Revisionist leader, accused by Palestine police of having inspired the murder of Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff, Laborite leader, was freed today by order of the court.

Following the conclusion of the prosecution’s case against Achimeier and his colleagues, Abraham Stavsky and Zvi Rosenblatt, at 5 o’clock in the afternoon, the court, acting upon a motion made by Defense Counsel Horace Samuel, declared evidence against the Revisionist leader was insufficient and ordered him freed. Handcuffs on his wrists were removed at once and Achimeier stepped from the prisoners’ dock a free man.

The court, however, denied a similar motion by Samuel as to the other two defendants and ordered the case against them to proceed. Tomorrow the defense opens its case.

While Stavsky and Rosenblatt were accused of premeditated murder, Achimeier was accused of “having counselled and procured the murder of Dr. Arlosoroff.”

HISTORY OF THE CASE

Dr. Arlosoroff, brilliant young Zionist leader, was shot and killed on the Tel Aviv seashore on June 16, 1933. Within a few days after the murder the three Revisionists were in the custody of police, accused of the murder. After a long-drawn-out preliminary hearing before Magistrate Ralph Bodilly, the three men were committed to stand trial for murder. The charges against Achimeier seemed to rest primarily upon speeches he delivered in Haifa and Jerusalem, an article in Hazit Haam, Revisionist newspaper, and entries in his diary, in all of which he was alleged to have called for terror against political opponents.

Previous to the release of Achimeier the court paid a visit to the Turgeman Hotel, home of the Revisionist accused, and to the Jerusalem jail to establish whether it would have been possible for the prisoners to have communicated with each other.

Upon the return of the judges to the courtroom Samuel made three declarations:

PROVES EVIDENCE LACKING

1. That there was no evidence against Achimeier, since it was impossible to accuse a person of murder on the ground that he had made two entries in a diary and was the possessor of unpublished manuscripts.

The court agreed and ordered the freeing of Achimeier.

2. That the charges against Rosenblatt had not been confirmed by prosecutor witnesses, with the exception of the alleged recognition by Mrs. Arlosoroff.

3. That the confirmation of the testimony against Stavsky by prosecution witnesses had been very weak.

The court, however, ordered the trial to go on.

Other witnesses before the court today included Police Sergeant Isaac Areili, Hamid Mejid, brother of Abdul Mejid; Officers Bendov and Kaetedan and David Rosalov, brother-in-law of the late Dr. Arlosoroff.

Hamid Mejid, who was recalled to the stand, was cross-examined on a statement he was alleged to have made in the Jaffa jail to a Jew, Isaac Parker. Hamid complained to Parker against his brother for having withdrawn his confession that he murdered Dr. Arlosoroff and against Mrs. Arlosoroff, who had failed to recognize his brother, as the murderer of her husband. Hamid assu### Parker that his brother and a ###panion, Issa, killed Dr. Arlosoroff.

Hamid denied having met Parker and denied emphatically having made any of the statemen### attributed to him.