The liberation of Landau

The Ministry of Justice provided yesterday morning the following information on the situation of Landau, Goldsky and Marion, convicted on May 15, 1918, by the 3rd Paris War Council, for intelligence with the enemy in the so-called affair of Red Hat.

The file of this case was recently examined by the Ministry of Justice with a view to a possible suspension of sentence to be granted to the three convicted by application of article 150 of the Code of Military Justice. This article provides for the conditional release of a convict for health reasons.

The medical conclusions were negative regarding Goldsky and Marion, but they were affirmative for Landau in whose favor General Nollet, Minister of War, signed a suspension of sentence. Beforehand, moreover, the question, as a whole, had been the subject of examination in the Council of Ministers. The government considered the possibility of applying to convicts the provisions of article 20 of the law of April 1920, which provides for “the minor revision”.

The Council therefore instructed the Keeper of the Seals to examine the file and decide whether there was reason to refer the case to the Chamber of Indictments. After an in-depth study, the Minister of Justice considered that, in the interests of justice and truth, the referral of the case to the latter jurisdiction was necessary. Mr. René Renoult made his decision known yesterday morning to the defenders of the convicted person and informed them that the file would be transmitted, from the afternoon, to the indictment chamber.

Let us add to this information that Landau, released the day before last evening and having spent the night with a relative, was taken to a clinic yesterday.

Will Goldsky's trial be reviewed?

The Keeper of the Seals has just, by virtue of article 20 of the amnesty law of August 29, 1921, sent to Mr. Scherdlin, Attorney General, the file of the Bonnet Rouge affair, specifically targeting Goldsky, in order to to seize the indictment chamber.

Article 20 of the amnesty law provides, for a period of two years, the appeal of both the Keeper of the Seals and the convicted person against the decisions of the war councils and courts martial. In this case, the appeal is filed by Goldsky, assisted by Mr. Pierre Lowel.

In accordance with the law, the indictment chamber will appoint a reporting advisor, who will carry out a complete investigation, with all the powers and all the means of investigation provided for by the law of December 8, 1897.

When the reporting advisor has completed his investigation, he will make his report; the advocate general, seized of the file, will give his conclusions and the Court will rule. If the indictment chamber considers that there is no reason to modify the previous sentence, it will decide that there is no reason to admit the request; if, on the contrary, it recognizes that a new decision is necessary, it will order the referral of the request and the procedure to the criminal chamber of the Court of Cases. sation, which will rule definitively on the merits as a court of judgment, invested with a sovereign power of appreciation

Goldsky who is in Clairvaux, to serve the sentence of eight years of forced labor and 5 years of exclusion, pronounced. on May 14, 1918, by the third war council, he was brought back to Paris.