SS Col. Adolf Eichmann, Gestapo officer accused of murdering 6,000,000 European Jews, will be presented by Israel’s Attorney General Gideon Hausner this week with the formal “statement of charges,” detailing his crimes and the Israeli laws which he violated by committing those crimes, it was stated here today. The statement is expected to be presented to Eichmann in the next 48 hours.
Presentation of the statement of charges to a defendant in a capital case precedes, under Israeli law, the filing of the formal charge sheet or indictment. On the basis of the statement, the defendant can decide whether he wants to request a preliminary hearing prior to his trial.
The statement of charges, it is understood, will contain more than a dozen accusations under various clauses of the Israeli criminal code. Some of the charges, it is understood, will relate to crimes against the Jewish people, while other charges will be concerned with general war crimes.
Eichmann’s defense attorney, Robert Servatius, of Cologne, Germany, returned to Israel last night, and is expected to meet with Attorney General Hausner. It is understood that Dr. Servatius will notify Mr. Hausner that his client does not want a preliminary hearing. If he follows that course, Dr. Servatius will thus open the way for earlier submission of the full, formal charge sheet to Eichmann.
(A proposal that Israel conduct only an inquest into the Eichmann case, leaving trial and conviction of the Nazi war criminal to West Germany or to the United Nations, was made in the New York Times today by former Brig. Gen. Telford Taylor, an American who was chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal in 1947.)
Meanwhile, it was reported here today that John R. Catchpole, Rhodesia’s official hangman, has offered his services to Israel to hang Adolf Eichmann, if the Nazi leader is found guilty. Mr. Catchpole said he had made his offer “by the desire to be of assistance to Israel and to humanity in what is a difficult job.” He added he would perform the hanging without charge.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
