A July 30 trial date has been set in Detroit in the four-year-old Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) case against Rumanian Archbishop Valerian Trifa of Grass Lake, Mich. The government has accused Trifa of lying when be entered this country in the early 1950s, and when he applied for U.S. citizenship, by concealing his membership in the Iran Guard, a fascist student organization in Rumania.
Trifa is accused of inciting a bloody program against the Jews of Bucharest in 1941. If convicted in the case, Trifa would have his U.S. citizenship revoked. U.S. Attorneys working on the case have predicted a lengthy trial, and a lengthy appeal if Trifa is convicted. If convicted, Trifa could be deported to Rumania to stand trial, but only after deportation hearings which could also be appealed.
The Trifa case has been scheduled to be heard by Federal District Judge. Cornelia Kennedy, who has been nominated for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals (Sixth Circuit) in Cincinnati. If approved, Kennedy’s appointment could further delay the Trifa case.
The 70-year-old Trifa was indicted May 15, 1975. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit handled the pre-trial investigations and procedures for three years before the case was assigned to the INS special litigation unit in April 1978. Kennedy’s office said Martin Mendelsohn and Eugene Thirholf, of the special litigation unit, and Thomas Woods, of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit, would handle the government’s case against Trifa.
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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.
