A 23-page indictment against David Frankfurter, Yugoslavian Jewish medical student, has been completed, it was announced today, charging him with murdering Wilhelm Gustloff, Nazi leader, in a hotel in Davos last February.
It asks the maximum penalty of eighteen years’ imprisonment, loss of civil rights, exile, payment of court costs and compensation for Gustloff’s widow. He will go on trial here Wednesday before five judges, with Dr. Rudolf Ganzoni presiding. The trial is expected to last three days.
The prosecution will be conducted by chief Prosecutor Dr. Bruegger, well-known Swiss personality, assisted by the Swiss layers Dr. Ursprun and Dr. Padrutt. Dr. Grimm, Nazi attorney, will represent Mrs. Gustloff. The defense is in the hands of Eugen Curti, noted 72-year-old advocate, known as the Clarence Darrow of Switzerland.
The authorities were reported seeking to prevent the case from assuming the proportions of a cause celebre by limiting it to the simple issues involved. How this could be done was problematical since the defense will be moral justification.
Scores of Nazi journalists were flocking here today in connection with reported Nazi attempts to create the widest possible anti-Jewish feeling in connection with the trial.
Mrs. Gustloff will be the only Nazi witness permitted to testify, it was reported. The Government intends to keep politics out of the trial it was stated, and will not permit any Jewish witnesses’ testimony either. The trial is expected to last three days.
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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.
