The French Minister of Justice intervened today to release five Basque priests who were arrested yesterday and charged with kidnapping the two Jewish children, Robert and Gerald Finaly, and with spiriting them across the French border to Spain.
The two Finaly boys in the meantime were moved today from the estate near Paris, where they resided since they were returned to France, to another home in the Paris area and placed under the care of Mr. and Mrs. Rosner, their relatives from Israel, and Otto Schwartz, an uncle from Vienna. Their Catholic guardian was replaced in the new residence by a Jewish social worker.
The arrests of the five priests took place in Bayonne, following interrogation of the two boys last week by police officials. Four of the priests were teaching at the St. Louis of Gonzaga School from which the children were smuggled across the border. The fifth is curate of a parish in Bayonne.
When they appeared before the Bayonne court, the priests refused to answer any questions put to them by the authorities. Just before they were imprisoned, they issued a statement complaining that their arrest violated an agreement between the Jewish and Catholic authorities which provided that the Jews would not press criminal charges against anyone in the event the children were returned.
Legal circles here, however, pointed out that since neither the French police nor the French courts were party to the agreement the authorities were not likely to heed the priests’ protest. Meanwhile, one of the attorneys representing the priests has demanded that the court confront his clients with the children.
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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.
