The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1866-10-27 00:00:00

•
THE TRIAL OF RISK ALLAH BEY.
The following account of the commencement of this
remarkable trial, which will add one more to the
long list of causes rele&re, is condensed from the account
sent over by the Brumela correspondent of the Dotty
Telegraph :

_
This morning (Monday), at half-past nine o'clock, was
opesied, at the ffidals de Justice In Brussels, a trial which
will no tionbt occupy public attention In other countries
beside Belgium for a week at lent; for there are nearly
Oily witneeses to be examinen, of whom the first day's pro-
ceedings have disposed of ohly six, although, tobe sure, the
whole of the forenoon was taken up by toe reading of the
acie d'acrutation and the interrogation of the prinmer—two
proceedings In the criminal law of Belgium, as ol France, at
which our Englieb sense of esti. stands aghast. The principle
on which •man's gaiter Innocence baste be establiahed here
Is diametrically opposed to that which governs every trial in
the assize courts of England With us, as is well known, It
is the merciful theory that every man is Innocent until we
have clearly proved his guilt. According to the French code,
and the Belgian code which so closely resembles It, guilt bias-
, punted by the prosecution, and It is for the prisoner to prove
! his innocence. It ismore difficult, no doubt, fora guilty man
to escape under this system than under our own ; but
whether or not the Innocent man has an inversely propor-
tionate facility of insuring his acquittal is another
question.
The accused in this case has certainly to meet a formidable
, array of charges. On the SOth of March, 1966, between the
, hours of seven and eight o'clock in the morning, a young
Englishman, named Charles Readly, was killed in his bed at
Antwerp by the discharge of a gun. iteadly occupied •
room, numbered seven, on the second floor of the Hotel du
Rhin, and he had for a trevelling companion a person named
Risk Allah, who Is described as a native of Lebanon, for-
merly an officer of the Turkish Army, and subsequently dotal.
riled in London. Immediately after the fatal °eminence
Risk Allah was arrested on the charge of having Murdered
Readly, but was subsequently set at liberty in consequence
of the report of • juge d hist ructiwl, who attributed the
death of the young Englishman to suicide. Subsequent in.
vestigations, however, induced the Belgian Government to
renew the prosecution of Risk Allah.
lie Is a man of exceedingly prepossessing appearance and
manners, his age, as he states it, is 42, and hotter the re'
rent change of his jet-black board to an iron grey, with
patches of almost positive white, he would look not a day
Older. When he took his place at the bar, he bowed with • ,
grave self-possession to the court and presently, catching '
the eye of some acquaintance, smiled and nodded quite as ,
wally sa If he had been in his stall at the opera. He has a
remarkably handsome face of his own, this Ottoman gentle.
man charged with • hese and cowardly murder. He Is the
full middle-height, and his figure is light, strong and active
Ills head was covered with a fee of soil red cloth, with a
purple silken tassel; and he pushed back thin coveting with
a hasty movement now and then, so as to leave his fine brows
quite burr. ()a the braided front of his military frock coat '
he wore the star of an efficer of the order of the hiedidjl, the
cross of a chevalier of the Order of Isabella, and • great
number of medals and decorations.

S,veral maglatretes, high fuuctlonarter, and persona Of
distinction—among them helve the Russian Ambassador,
Pr;nee Orlotf, mei the Charge d'Affaires of the Sublime Porte
—sat behind the bench. Extraordinary accommodatton had •
Wen made for the representatives of the Belgian and foreign
newspapers, as many as sir epeeist reportern attending for
Paris journals alone. The court was crowded to excese,
there being no gallery, an I the space on the floor not very
commodious. In trout of the preen serge drapery of the
table before the President was a very large brown paper
bundle: and on it lay a millhieFe dummy, and these were
designed to show the jary the exact position in which the
corpse of the unfortunate Charles Readly, otherwise James
William Macklin, was found.
The Act of At:ciliation was read by the greeicr, and It
stated that on the day of the tragedy the only other lodgers
In the hotel were two persons, who quitted it some time
before the fatal event occurred, end the master and servants
who were on the ground floor at the thne of the occurrence ;
and it Is inferred that if Readly did not commit suicide, no
Mind but that of Risk Allah could have slain him. A
motive fey the crime is suggested by the circumstance
that by the death of Ilia young Englishman the accused
became entitled to a large sum of money. The youth ap-
pears to have been known by the name of Basely or
Read, hut his proper name seems to have been Macklin.
Ile was the eon of William Miicklin and Rosamond Read,
and was born at Greeuwich on the loth of July, 1614, conse-
quently he wol between three and four mouthi under the
age of twenty-one y earn at the time of his decease. Ills
mother became a widow and coteracted a second marriage
with William Plasket Lewis. who died in 1036, leaving het a
fortune of about 25,teed. The following year she married •
third husband, the eccused Risk Allah, to whom, on her de-
cease in 1,60, sh- bequeathed ail her fortune. Upon the
occaelon of her third marriage a settlement was flied° by
which young Readly wouid have become eutitled to 6,01101. I
if he obtained his majority, but if he did not live to that age
this sum reverted to his mother's disposal. Readly having I
died three months urder age Rik Allah, as the residuary I
leguiere of tie mother, became e 'Oiliest to We money, and.
In fact, he received • large pontos of it under • decree of
the Court of Chancery, dakd the 21st of J uly, 1666 It appoint
she that he Insured young lleeillyie life for 1,0001 , and ob- I
tamed payment of this nun lu Fel nary last. by • decree
of the Court of Chancery in hill, Eidc Allah had been ap-
pointed the guardian of bin stepson during his mino-
rity. So much for the inducement of the crime. The
circumstances from which Risk Allales criminality is in-
(erred are principally as follows He and the youth had •
been loegtim for eight or ten days at the ilotel du Rhin,
when Readly fell Hi of some bowel complaint, which re-
quired medieal aid. on this 01..1•In Mak Allah told
persons to the hotel that the young man had something
weighing on hi. mind, and might hang himself or throw
himself out of window. Some days after Ma remark •
chambermaid, flawed Brouwers, observed the accused place
a gun in Reality's room, and this act, ills argued, is incon-
sistent with the apprehenelons that he would commit
suicide. The gun was put in his room on the 26th of
March, and he did not die till the morning of the 30th.
About three eclock on that mending be rang his bell. One
of the set-mita came to his assistance, found him 11l and
out of bed, aid with Risk Allah's asaisteuce got him back
to bed again. The girl lircuwers looked into hie room at
seven o'clock and saw him 'sleeping quietly. Aeons half an
hour afterwards Milk Allah cAIIIO downstairs to his breakfast,
and until nine o'clock walked up and down in front of the
hotel. Be then went upstairs, kvocked at the door of
Reaiity'a room (No. 7,, and celled the wafters As tee door I
was locked they paned into No. 7 through NO. 6, which com- I
municated with it. The chamberintid, however, observed ,
thet • commode which she had placed against the door
of communication between the two room. had been di.. I
placed, and it Is thence inferred that some one must have
gone out of the young man's apartment, through No. 6, be-
tween the hours ot seven and fitment the morning. On enter.
ing with the waiters, itiek Allah went imtuediately to the
Utile, and found a piece of paper with these words written
on it, have done It." The circemstances seem, however,
Irreconelleable with the theory of suicide. Tile body was
found in the attitude of a person calmly sleeping; the clothes
were uneisturbed. From the manner in which the wound
was inflicted it appears, by medical testimony, that death
must have been instantaneous, the charge of the guu having
perforated the head. But the two arms were found under
the coverlid, the right hand reeling on the stomach, and
the left arm extended by the side of the body. It Is pro-
nounced to have been absolutely Impossible that atter firing
the gun the unfortunate youth could have put bis hands
under tire Led clothes
I When the accusing document had been read right through,
the President proceeded to interrogate the accused, often
cautioning him to reflect, to pause, to take time, not to
answer the questions 'dune fa,,on tilLo,l4iderif • With •
sadden and impressive energy, when limited whether be did
not know that the sum of 6,000 Items would revert to him,
under his contract of marriage, in case of Readly's dying I
before he attained the age of 21, Risk Allah Bey protested
his entire Ignorance of any sucle provision. On every point •
of this tremendous Acts d'Accusation, the prisouer was
Interrogated rigidly, though with the repeated warnings to
which I have referred. His answers were shrewd, prompt,
terse, and those either of a man strong in innocence
or of a very bold malefactor; in any case they were
tile answers of a more than commonly Minitel:Mal
man. The first without who took the very ember-
earning position of the centre of the court, where
there Is • little rained platform with • chair on It,
was Ur. John Smith, senior keeper of records at the Court
of Probate, in London. This officer merely produced the
documents referred to in tlie charges against Riot knell Bey
and during the time that the witness set in the middle of
the justice hall, an animated diaeussion as to the genuineness
of the signatures and tio Integrity of the writing and altera-
tion, wee kept np between the President and the accused,
who, by-tbeibye, took a great deal of labour on himself, um
checked by his advocates, M. Lechery', of Paria, and M.
Charles Graux. of the Brussels bar. Speaking Be glivh, with
-rrectnese of illetlen, theugh with s strong foreign accent,
Rink Allah Bey encomitered each Er glish witness directly,
without allowing his hiterreptions to lose any Of their force
by lousing through the translator.
At the close of the day, the proceedings were
adjourned.