The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-01-09

2.944.731 $1.O33. 279, s27
ALL OTHER STATES.
THE PENDING RUSSIAN TREATY.

The demand which Russia makes for the
extradition of Nihilists is all the more dan
gerous because it is clothed in language ap-
| parently so reasonable. The third section of
| the proposed treaty excludes extradltion for
| political crimes, and merely provides that
murder and manslaughter, comprising the
willful and negligent killing of the sovereign,
or any member of his family, as we'll as an
attempt to commit participate in such
crimes. shall not be considered an ofense of a
political character"
It is certainly not the wish of the people of
this country to protect murderers from justice,
but the great difficulty with this treaty is that
it is a mere cloak for an effort on the part of
the government of the Gear to make the
United States his ally in his effort to prosecute
political offenders who are struggling to lib
crate their country from insufferable tyranny.
No person returned to Russia under this
treaty will be entitled to any form of trial
which will protect his life or liberty if he be
accused of any completely in attempt to
overthrow the Cars government.
difference both in procedure and punishment
between ordinary crimes ndpolitical offenses.
The punishment OF death has long since
been abolished in Russia for all crimes except
those of a political nature. Murder and man
slaughter are punished by exile and forced
labor, but an effort to overthrow the existing
government is punishable with death. Other
crimes are tried by jury in the regular courts.
but political offenses, including attempts
against the Gar, are consigned to the militia
ry tribunals, where the proceedings are secret,
and execution follows arrest, sometimes with
in twenty four hours. Men have suffered
death for conspiracy before their identity
could be proved. The counsel for the pris-
must be military officer, whose rank
and fortune are wholly at the mercy Of the
government. Such counsel is not allowed
access to the dispositions until few hours
before the trial Men have been arrested at
night, taken to private house, tried by Off
GERS and hanged the next day. Mlodetski
was sentenced and executed without any
judicial inquiry. In some cases these military
judges have simply pronounced sentences
prescribed before the trial by dispatches or
kilograms from st. Petersburg Occasionally
the judges ask for instructions from the CAPT
tai before they render judgment. Officials
publicly boast that the tribunals will do
whatever they wish. Newspapers cannot pub
lish accounts of trials, but must copy the
official reports.
After the killing of the late Gar, even the
next of kin to the accused were excluded
from the trial. Even if the accused is ac-
Quilted, the police may arrest him at once,
and condemn him to exile, upon mere admin
istrative order, to any part of the Russian
empire, even the remote east Of Siberia. In
stances are to-day upon the Russian records
where men have been accused of revolution
airy projects Gas in. the case of Isidor Gold
smith aud wife), and the charges found to be
without justification. consequently, the
chief of police DEGREES that they be trans
ported to Archangel, and placed under the
supervision of the local police" 1t is to await
this mockery of trial that the Car asks
that all whom he accuses of crime shall be re-
turned to Russia under this treaty. Leroy
Beaulieu Justly remarks. in his recent admir-
able work on the Empire of the Cars, and
the Russians:
''This putting conspirators without the
pale of the ordinary law, in creating for them
alone a whole Draconian legislation, the Rus
sian government has forgotten that in respect
to other nations it weakened singularly its
demand for extradition. which rests upon
treaty and common right The Russian PEI
nal code itself teaches Us TO make distinc-