A report on the preparations made by the Israeli authorities for the holding of the trial of Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi leader who directed the mass-murder of 6,000,000 Jews in Europe, was given at a press conference here today by Yosef Nahmias, Israel Police Inspector General. The trial opens on April 11.
The complete details of the trackdown and capture of Nazi Adolf Eichmann “have not yet been published” and may not be known until the entire affair is history, Mr. Nah-mias said.
He disclosed that 474 of the 750 seats which will be available in the Bet Haam courtroom where Eichmann will be tried next month have been set aside for local and foreign correspondents. Sixty seats are reserved for the Israel Foreign Ministry for distribution to diplomats and official observers. Thirty tickets will be given daily to the Government Tourist Corporation for distribution to visitors from abroad.
Only a few hundred seats have been set aside for the Israel public, although the number of seats for them presumably will be increased as foreign interest declines at later stages of the trial.
It was also revealed here today that Eichmann had been taken from his closely guarded cell to a court in connection with a request from a West German court for evidence from him. The evidence was sought for a libel case involving Dr. Hans Globke, State Secretary to West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, who has been under fire on charges of anti-Jewish activities as an official of the Ministry of the Interior during the Nazi regime.
GERMAN WITNESSES FOR EICHMANN FEAR TO TESTIFY AT TRIAL
Dr. G. von Preuschen, of Wiesbaden, has been appointed as the West German Government’s official observer at the forthcoming trial, in Israel, of Nazi Adolf Eichmann, according to an announcement made here today by the Ministry of Justice.
At the same time, it became known that the Prosecutor’s office at Frankfurt will have its own observer at the trial. The Frankfurt prosecutor has been conducting a series of investigations into the activities of Nazi war criminals. The Frankfurt observer will be Dr. H. Zeug.
Dieter Wechterbruch, assistant to Eichmann’s defense attorney, Robert Servatius, said today that some witnesses in West Germany were available for the defense in the trial scheduled to open in Jerusalem April 11, but they were not willing to risk going to Israel.
Mr. Wechtenbruch, who arrived here from Israel in connection with the final preparations for the trial, said that the witnesses fear going to Israel, since the Israeli Government announced it will not guarantee immunity from prosecution for Eichmann’s trial witnesses whose complicity in Eichmann’s crimes may be established through their own testimony.
The attorney refused to reveal the names of the potential witnesses or to indicate the number of such persons. He did not reply when asked by a newspaperman whether he thought Israel’s ruling against immunity to such witnesses had prejudiced the defense efforts. However, he declared there was “some hope” that some of the witnesses might agree to go to Israel to testify for the defense.
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