Twelve Jews are among fourteen Czech government and Communist Party Leaders who went on trial today before the highest Czechoslovakian count in Prague on charges of “Zionism, Titoism and Trotzkyism” and of serving in the intenerate of “American imperialism.” The most prominent Jew among the defendants is ### former Deputy Premier of Czechoslovakia and onetime secretary general of the Czechoslovak Communist Party.
The opening of the trial was announced this morning by the Prague radio which said that the prosecution changed the defendants with conducting “espionage activities, weaken of the national unity and the defense of the Czechoslovak nation in order to separate Czechoslovakia from the Soviet Union.”
The broadcast also stated: “In the service of American imperialists, under the leadership of western espionage agencies, they formed an anti-state conspiracy center in order to destroy the people’s democratic machine in Czecholovakia and to sabotage socialist recommendation and the national economy.”
Besides Slansky, the defendants include: Vlado Clementis, former Czechoslovak Foreign Minister, who is not a Jew; Otto Sling, former secretary of the Communist Party of ### Geminder, former deputy secretary general of the Czechoslovak Communist Party; L###, Gen. Bendrich Reicin, ex-Deputy Minister of Defense and chief of the Czechoslovak intelligence service; Arthur London, former Deputy Foreign Minister; Wavro Hejdu, former Deputy Foreign Minister.
Also, Joseph Frank, former deputy secretary general of the Communist Party; Otto Fischel, former Deputy Finance Minister; Ludvik Frejka, former government economic adviser; ### former Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade; Andre Simon, onetime editor of the Communist Party newspaper Rude Pravo; Evzen Loebel, former Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade; and Karol Svab, ex-security officer.
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