The military court trying 20 Jewish youths, including two girls, on charges of illegal possession of arms today denied a motion by defense counsel to dismiss the case because the defendants were arrested before any arms had been found, and, secondly, the place where the weapons were discovered was easily accessible and anybody could have planted them there.
Opposing the defense move, the prosecutor said that the number of weapons found corresponded to the number of those arrested, despite the fact that several of the weapons were unserviceable, and “the mood” of the accused after their arrest, he added, indicated that they were an organized group.
One of the defendants, Itzhak Gazweich, testified that he had arrived in Palestine from Warsaw over a year ago and was emplyed in a diamond polishing plant. Since he was unacquainted with the country, he decided to utilize his vacation for a hiking tour, during which he encountered the other defendants and received permission to spend the night in their bivouac, Gazweich said, denying that he had any connection with or knowledge of the arms.
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.
