“I had no reason to kill Arlosoroff,” Zvi Rosenblatt, Zionist Revisionist held with Abraham Stavsky for the murder of Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff at Tel Aviv last June, said in his own behalf at the conclusion of the dramatic fourth week of the trial.
In his testimony Rosenblatt denied he had ever spoken with Moshe Cohen, police agent, concerning the murder of Arlosoroff.
“I remember his entering my cell,” Rosenblatt said. “I was reading a typewritten article by Vladimir Jabotinsky on Moscow methods. In the article, which had been smuggled in, Jabotinsky said Palestine police were adopting OGPU methods. Cohen asked me what I was reading and I told him it was an article by Jabotinsky. We spoke no more. I haven’t seen him since. I had no reason to kill Arlosoroff.”
Cross-examined concerning his relations with Abdul Mejid, Arab convict who said during the preliminary hearings that he had killed Arlosoroff and later retracted this testimony, Rosenblatt said:
“Mejid used to greet us and others with the word ‘Shalom’ every time we passed his cell. I never asked Mejid to take the blame. I never told him I killed Arlosoroff. I never showed him any plans. I have never given him any details regarding our alleged crime.
“I was present once when Mejid spoke to Stavsky from his cell. He told Stavsky that the police had discovered a blood stain on Mejid’s trousers.”
Shown his shoes, casts of which had been made, Rosenblatt declared to the court that he did not wear those shoes in June at all. (The murder was committed on June 16.)
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