Samuel L. Haber, executive director of the Joint Distribution Committee, called on Czechoslovakian authorities today “to continue and intensify their investigation to determine and reveal the true facts” surrounding the mysterious death in Prague last August of Charles H. Jordan, former executive vice chairman of the JDC. Tomorrow will be the first anniversary of the disappearance of Mr. Jordan from his hotel room in Prague where he and Mrs. Jordan were visiting. His body was found in the Vltava River four days later. Mr. Haber said “we owe it to the memory of our former executive vice chairman and general director to remind the Czechoslovakian Government publicly that we are still waiting for answers to the questions we raised a year ago.” He noted in his statement today, “the Institution of political reforms and the growing liberalization in Czechoslovakia” during the past year.
Mr. Jordan’s death was all the more mysterious in that an autopsy failed to reveal any marks of violence and drowning was officially given as its cause. Mr. Haber noted that news stories emanating from various sources speculated that Mr. Jordan had been killed by Arab students, by an Egyptian diplomat who returned to his country or by Soviet secret police. “We prefer to get the true facts from the proper authorities,” he said. “We shall not relax our efforts until the full truth becomes known.” Mr. Haber expressed gratitude to the U.S. State Department for its continued assistance in pressing the Czechoslovak authorities to establish the full sequence of events that led to Mr. Jordan’s death.
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