Widow Blamed Arab As Killer, Engineer Says

A direct attack on the testimony of Mrs. Sima Arlosoroff, widow of Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff, for whose murder Abraham Stavsky and Zvi Rosenblatt are being tried, was made today by defense witnesses, who declared she had identified one of her husband’s assassins as an Arab.

All through the preliminary investigation and during the trial Mrs. Arlosoroff remained steadfast in her testimony that she had identified Rosenblatt and Stavsky as the killers.

The defense also introduced a witness who told of a startling conversation with Osher Chazan, Stavsky’s landlord in Tel Aviv, in which Chazan declared it was essential to convict the Revisionist Zionists of the murder.

“90 PER CENT CERTAIN”

Engineer Andrei Gut testified he had picked up Dr. Arlosoroff fter he was shot and had driven him to the Hadassah Hospital. Later he took Mrs. Arlosoroff and a member of the Zionist Executive, Joshua Gordon, to the Katedan Hotel. He said Mrs. Arlosoroff declared, “I am ninety per cent certain that the smaller man who shot him was an Arab, while the taller man was a Jew.”

Asked by Attorney General Trusted why he hadn’t revealed this statement at the preliminary hearing, Gut replied, “I didn’t think it was important. Had I known of the importance attached to the statement I would certainly have insisted on having it recorded.”

Brucha Kultchinsky, wife of a Jewish merchant, testified she and her husband had been in the Katedan Hotel on the night of the murder and when she saw Mrs. Arlosoroff, whom she knew, enter, she approached her and asked her what was wrong. The witness declared she heard Mrs. Arlosoroff say to herself, “I must not forget what to tell the police.”