The “Kastner Case,” which caused the reorganization of the Israel Government barely a month before the elections of last week was reopened in Magistrate’s Court here yesterday, but was immediately postponed and transferred to the Magistrate’s Court in Jerusalem on a legal technicality.
The second phase of this case resulted from a civil action in which Malkiel Gruenwald, who was cleared of libel charges after a year-long trial, charged that the principal witness against him, Dr. Israel Kastner, had committed perjury during the earlier trial. The transfer to the Jerusalem court was ordered by the Tel Aviv magistrate because Mr. Gruenwald alleges that the perjury took place in the District Court in Jerusalem.
Mr. Gruenwald was prosecuted by the Attorney General who charged that Gruenwald had lied in a pamphlet accusing Dr. Kastner, former head of the Jewish Rescue Committee in Nazi-occupied Hungary, of collaboration with the Gestapo. Since Dr. Kastner was at the time of the alleged slander a government employee, the state prosecuted the case and Dr. Kastner’s role was that of a witness. The District Court held that Mr. Gruenwald had substantially proved his charges against Dr. Kastner.
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