Facing a tense crowd in a dingy courtroom, Abdul Mejid, a seventeen-year-old Moslem clad after the European fashion but wearing a fez, calmly responded to intense grilling by both the prosecution and the defense in the trial of the three young Revisionists held for the murder of Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff, Zionist labor leader.
Abdul Mejid told that he met Abraham Stavsky and Zwi Rosenblatt, two of the detained Revisionists, in prison. Some time after he heard the reason for their being in custody. Abdul Mejid said, he was approached by Stavsky, who offered him a bribe if he would confess to the murder of Dr. Arlosoroff. Stavsky pointed out. Abdul Mejid said, that since the young Arab had already confessed to the murder of an Arab, he could not be punished more than once, even for two crimes.
Stavsky then spent an hour telling him the details of the murder of Dr. Arlosoroff and reminding him that since he was under age he would not be hanged but merely imprisoned, Abdul Mejid testified.
Rosenblatt, he said, promised him a thousand pounds if he would confess to the murder and assured him that he would have the services of eminent lawyers. A sketch of the seachore of Tel Aviv, indicating the sport where the murder was committed, was given him by Rosenblatt, the Arab boy disclosed.
A bulletin issued by Haaretz, Tel Aviv Hebrew newspaper, quotes Abdul Mejid as saying that when he imquired of Stavsky and Rosenblatt about the details of the murder both admitted that Rossenblatt fired a short from an automatic pistol and that both bolted towareds the cemetery when Dr. Arlosoroff, struck by the bullet, fell to the ground.
In the course of the probe which he began this afternoon, Horace Samuel, attorney for the defense, elicited bit by bit the testimony that Abdul Mejid had been friendly with Issad Arvish the second Arab who was brought into the case about ten days ago. Abdul Mejid denied, however, that he had been at the seashore on the evening of the murder, declaring that he had not visidted Tel Aviv for years.
The examination by the defen# will be continued.
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.
