Deportation proceedings against Rumanian Archbishop Valerian Trifa of Grass Lake, Mich, will begin in Detroit on October 4, according to Allen Ryan, director of the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations. The hearings are expected to last 2-3 weeks. This information was given by Ryan to Dr. Charles Kremer of New York who has been urging the U.S. government to move against Trif since the archbishop come to the U.S. in the early 1950’s.
Ryan said that if the judge finds Trifa is deportable, the judge will ask at the end of the proceedings which country Trifa would like to go to Government attorneys can also make a recommendation at that time.
Trifa, who was a leader of the Iran Guard in war-time Rumania, is accused of inciting a pogrom in Bucharest in January, 1941. He voluntarily consented to denaturalization in September, 1980 and then appealed that decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. The Appeals Court denied his petition and the Supreme Court refused to hear the case. If Trifa is ordered deported and returns to Rumania, he could face trial there for war crimes.
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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.
