Minister of Finance Mironescu yesterday ordered action taken against tax officials accused of terrorizing in September a Jewish trader, Motti Pekl of Kishinev.
In Jewish circles it is hoped that the Finance Minister’s order may be an indication of official condemnation of terroristic acts employed by tax collectors in Bessarabia, whose victims, it is alleged, are for the most part Jews.
Pekl was beaten up when he informed the tax collectors that he had already paid his taxes and showed them that the summons they produced was not made out against him, and after he had begged for an extension of time to make the second payment.
Minister Mironescu’s official action followed an interpellation introduced in Parliament by Deputy Michael Landau, who asked that an end be brought to the terrorization acts which he said are by now as notorious throughout Roumania as “the Bessarabian methods.”
Minister Mironescu ordered the tax official implicated in the attack on Pekl submitted to a disciplinary trial, stating the investigation showed that the Jewish trader had been tortured. The tax administrator was transferred to another post by order of the Finance Minister.
Pekl will bring a civil action against the tax officials for assault.
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