The Trial of Stanislow Steiger, the young Jewish student, accused of having thrown a bomb at President Wojciechowski was continued here yesterday in the military court. The building where the hearing is being held was very heavily guarded by the police as if some violence were feared. Representatives of the entire Polish press, as well as foreign correspondents, were admitted to the courtroom.
The proceedings began with State Attorney Laniewski supporting the charge against Steiger. Counsel for the defense, Attorney Grek, who is the President of the Lemberg Bar Association submitted his protest to the court against the prison authorities who did not permit him to see the prisoner privately. He asked the court for permission to have a private conversation with Steiger. The court having granted this privilege to the defense connsel, Steiger from the stand declared that he refuses to take advantage of this. “I have no secrets and I wish to have conversation with my counsel openly”, he said. Steiger told the court in a calm and businesslike manner the history of his life and concluded with an emphatic denial that he was in any way connected with or that he had in any way participated in the attack on President Wojciechowski.
three witnesses for the State, one of them a Jew, were heard by the court. They supported the charge against Steiger.
Steiger’s attorney made sensational revelations which may lead to suspension of the proceedings and to the directing of a new investigation along quite different lines. Attorney Grek declared that according to information in his possession, Mr. Samuel Rosestrauch, a storekeeper, and his wife, Rachel, were told by an official of the Polish post office, whose name is known to them, that an hour before the attack occurred in Lemberg he overheard, at the post office building, a long-distance telephone conversation between the
city of Lemberg and Sambor, during which the attack on the President was mentioned.
Further development which may determine the fate of Stanislaw Steiger was the reiteration by the Ruthenian secret military organization that it alone is responsible for the attack on the Polish President. In a second communication addressed to the Polish Jewish paper “Chwila”, the organization confirms the authenticity of its previous statement and, in order to remove any suspicion that the entire matter is merely an invention for the purpose of exonerating Steiger, the communication furnishes evidence that in February 1924 the Chairman of the Lemberg District Court received a letter from the same organization bearing authentic signatures and seal.
During the afternoon session the witnesses for the defense were heard. They spoke very highly of the accused, Steiger, and declared that he was never before active in any political movement. The verdict is expected today.
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.
