A senior Israel police officer declared today that a “political terrorist underground organization” was responsible for the attempt last week to assassinate Dr. Israel Kastner, a former leader of Hungarian Jewry and central figure in a libel action which rocked the government last year.
Three men arrested in the search for Dr. Kastner’s assailant were arraigned in magistrate’s court here today and remanded for 15 days to enable police to complete their investigations. The three will be charged with attempted murder. Fingerprints on the weapon with which Dr. Kastner was shot and on the stolen jeep used in the ambush linked the three men to the crime, police said.
Among several others being held by the police is Jacob Herouti, an attorney who represented two of the defendants until his own arrest. Herouti and others now held on suspicion were involved in the 1952 Sarafand trial of a terrorist group accused of the bombing of the Soviet Embassy and the Czechoslovak Legation. Members of the group received prison sentences but were subsequently pardoned.
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