The Board of Deputies of British Jews has urged that world opinion be brought to bear on the Baghdad Government to save Iraqi Jews facing execution on what it said were false charges of espionage for Israel. In a statement, it declared that the charges must be false since the Jewish defendants had been under arrest since the June, 1967 Arab-Israeli war and could not have engaged in spying. Eight Iraqi Jews were being tried, two of them in absentia, by a military tribunal which has met in camera except for a public session Jan. 4 when the prosecutor demanded the death sentence. The 11 other defendants are Moslems and a Christian.
(In Buenos Aires, the Sephardic (Oriental) Jewish community of Argentina urged United Nations Secretary General U Thant to intercede with the Iraqi Government on behalf of the accused Iraqi Jews. The appeal was contained in telegrams to Mr. Thant and to the International Red Cross in Geneva. It was signed by Adolfo Tesone, president, and Ramon Juegati, secretary of the organization, which represents 50,000 Argentinean Jews.)
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