A sensation was created in court this afternoon when Ibrahim Abu Gait, Arab tracker employed by the police, admitted during cross-examination by defense counsel Horace Samuel that he had failed to identify the footprints of Abraham Stavsky, one of three Revisionist Zionists accused of the murder of Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff, when police arranged a test at the jail premises in Jaffa.
Stavsky, together with Aba Achimeier and Zvi Rosenblatt, are on trial here charged with the murder of the brilliant young Zionist laborite leader and head of the political department of the Jewish Agency for Palestine.
When questioned further by Samuel, Abu Gait explained that his failure to identify Stavsky’s footprints was due to the fact that the soil near the jail was sandy but hard, while the soil at the seashore, where the murder was committed, was moist. He added that he had reported this fact to Inspector Schiff, who had arranged the test. Samuel then asked him whether it was true that at the second test arranged by the police at the scene of the murder he had picked up Stavsky’s foot and examined it before the test began. Abu Gait answered that this was true, but that he had done this not only with Stavsky, but with all other participants in the test.
Earlier in the day Abu Gait had explained in detail the process by which he had established that the footprints at the scene of the crime were those of Stavsky and Rosenblatt. He informed the court that he had been a professional tracker for thirteen years and was employed by the police for the last three years.
TESTIFIES ON FOOTSTEPS
Abu Gait testified that he had arrived at the scene of the murder two hours after the crime was committed. He found the footsteps of a man and a woman which were directly facing the footprints of two men, one of whom wore large shoes, while the other wore small shoes. The large shoes, he declared, were half soled, while the small shoes were full soled with iron nails.
The tracks of the two men led away from the murder spot to an Arab cemetery, then ever a barbed wire fence to the top of a hill where the footsteps disappeared, the police tracker said.
About a hundred feet further on, Abu Gait declared, he had picked up the tracks of the two men, and that the tracks led to the road to Tel Aviv. There the tracks ended and the track of an automobile began.
Abu Gait stated that later he had recognized Stavsky’s shoes as the ones making the larger track at the seashore. Questioned by Samuel as to whether he had found any other tracks at the seashore the tracker said that he had found on the hilltop the tracks of a man, a woman and a dog. Samuel asked him if he had not told the police that the tracks on the hilltop were the tracks of the murderers. Abu Gait replied that he didn’t remember making such a statement.
Police Inspector Ernest R. Stafford of the Jaffa police occupied the witness stand during most of the morning session.
MRS. ARLOSOROFF PICKS STAVSKY
Pursuing his theory that Dr. Arlosoroff was shot by a left-handed man, or the bullet would not have entered his left side, Samuel closely cross-examined the police inspector, who had told how Mrs. Arlosoroff confronted with fifteen suspects at the police station, had picked out Stavsky as one of the murderers of her husband.
Stafford declared that among the suspects was the Revisionist Zionist Schneiderman, who was left handed, but who was later released.
Replying to a further question of Samuel, Stafford said that Stavsky had complained to him that Mrs. Arlosoroff had picked him out because he was the tallest of the suspects. Stafford assured the court, however, that among the fifteen suspects were several others of the same height.
As far as Rosenblatt was concerned, Stafford declared that he was not the smallest of the suspects and also did not wear clothing differing from the others when he was confronted with Mrs. Arlosoroff.
The police inspector also testified that he had not seen Mrs. Arlosoroff talking with Rosenblatt for the alleged purpose of inducing him to admit his guilt. Last Thursday, however, Mrs. Arlosoroff had admitted talking to Rosenblatt in the presence of Chief Investigator Rice.
PREPARE FOR BAZAAR
Preparations are being made by the Sisterhood of the Brooklyn Jewish Center for its annual charity bazaar, to be held at the Brooklyn Jewish Center, 667 Eastern parkway, May 12 to May 17. Arrangements are in charge of Mrs. Phillip Brenner.
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.
