The Judge asked Dumitrescu where he had got the revolver. Dumitrescu replied that he would not say, unless the person who had given him the revolver would come into court and say so himself.
The Judge then pointed out that there were several discrepancies between Dumitpescu’s statement to the court now and his statement before the examining judge immediately after his arrest. Dumitrescu said that this could be explained by the fact that at the first hearing, he had simply said “yes” to everything he was asked, because he had not wanted to be kept under a long examination, and he had thought that in that way he would get it over quickly.
Dumitrescu’s Counsel, at this point, rose to argue that the court had no jurisdiction in the case and to ask that Dumitrescu should be tried before a jury. (Apparently believing that a jury would be more lenient and likely to acquit him, as juries have acquitted others of the anti-Semitic leaders at various times, even after actual murder, as in the case of Codreanu after he had killed the Prefect of Jasay, and in the case of Totu after he had killed the Jewish student Falik).
The court dismissed the application, however, after hearing further argument on its behalf.
M. Scor, who was then called as a witness, said that Dumitresou had stated that Professor Cuza’s son, Lofter, had instigated him, and had given him the revolver, and also a sum of money to go and kill him. He had afterwards withdrawn that statement, however, saying that it was not true.
Lofter, himself, and also Totu, who were then called (both of them are under arrest together with Codreanu and others on the charge of plotting to overthrow the Government by force of arms and establish an antisemitic dictatorship), denied that they were in any close association with Dumitrescu. They admitted that they knew that he was a nationalist.
The Jews of Marmoresz always shouted that a pogrom was being organised, they said, as soon as a Roumanian came into the district.
At this point, the proceedings were adjourned, and after some time, it was announced that they would not be resumed till the early part of February, in order to enable the prosecution to pro… evidence that the leaders of the antisemitic terrorist organisation had instigated Dumitrescu to make the attempt on M. Socor’s life.
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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.
