Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1949-10-16
Rajk, Once Hungary's
No. 7 Top Communist,
Hanged for Treason
By the Associofed Press

-Laszlo Rajk. once Hungary's No.
2 Communist, was hanged today
for treason-the fate he begged
for at his trial.
Rajk, who swept out Hungary's
middle class Stockholders Party
for the Communist revolution in
1947. had avidly confessed to
leading a Balkan-wide Yugoslav
plot to assassinate the biggest
Hungarian Communists and make
himself premier.
Executed with him were two as
sociates, DR.. Thor Szoenyi, IS,
former director Of the Hungarian
Communist Party's cadre section,
and Szoenyi's deputy, 32-year-old
Andras Szalai. The cadre section
supervised the rank and file
membership.
Executions Announced.
Announcement of the eXecu-
tons made by Foreign Office
spokesman. The trap was sprung
about 6 am. presumably in a
prison courtyard. The place of
imprisonment was a government
secret.
If the customary practice is
followed. Rajk and his comrades
will be buried in unmarked
graves.
The executions were carried
out less than "a hours after the
Council of Peoples Courts. the
court of last resort, had rejected
appeals for clemency filed on be-
half of Rajk and his two associ-
ates. Rajk himself did not wish
to appeal. Also rejected were
appeals from prison sentences
given three others in the case.
Two Of the defendants in the
Rajk trial. 1t. Gen Gyorgy Palffy,
former chief of the Hungarian
army, and Bella Korondy, form
er army major. are yet to have
their fate determined by a court
martial.
All the defendants were charged
with treson, espionage for Amer
lean, British and Yugoslav in
telligence agents. and plotting to
turn Hungary into a vassal state
Of Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia.
Rajk. 40-year-old native of
Pennsylvania. was an extreme
leftwing Communist who rose to
be boss of Hungary's police as
minister Of interior and finally
became foreign minister.
Wounded in Spanish War.
AS youth he was expelled from
the university for Communist &C
Invites. He was wounded in the
Spanish civi1 war while serving
with an international brigade
against Generalissimo Franco.
In March. 1916. he became in
terror minister. It was he who
paved the way for the ouSting of
the Stakeholder Party premier,
Ferenc Macy. in 1947 by his police
roundups of alleged reactionaries
in the Stakeholder ranks. He
staged other roundups of sympa-
thizers with former Regent Ad-
miral Nicholas Horthy who were
alleged to be plotting revolution.
Rajk wrote the new Communist
election law of 1947. and became
foreign minister in August, 1948.
But he was not one of the group
of Moscow trained Hungarian
Communists. and barely 10 months
later he was arrested.
At his trial Rajk f1uently con-
fesed to having been traitor to
his party for II years. With
poker face, he virtually adjusted
the nose about his own neck by
declaring he had engaged in
plot Of Tito's "to lead and organ
ize an anti-Soviet movement in
every peoples democracy (Soviet
satellite)."
He himself would have become
the "Titoist Prime Minister" of
Hungary, he said.
Pleads Guilty to Charges.
Rattling off guilty" guilty
guilty" to all the charges, he said
he had plotted to assassinate
Matyas Rakosi, deputy premier
and No. l Communist of Hungary,
Gen. Mihaiy Farkas, defense min
lister, and Erne Zero, Moscow
trained finance minister.
His last-spoken public words
were after the prosecutor had
asked for the death sentence, and
Rajk said: Il agree fully with
your statement, Mr.. Prosecutor.
and want to state in advance that
will consider the verdict of the
court as justified"
In his testimony he linked Sell
den Chaplin, former American
Minister to Hungary, and 1t. Col.
George Kovacs, former member
OF the American military mission
in Hungary, with the alleged plot.
Both Col. Kovacs and Mr..
Chaplin denied his charges. Mr..
Chaplin recalled that Rajk was
severe, disagreeable and unco-
operative" in their official contacts.
The Yugoslav government
charged that the trial was rugged
by Russia to bring pressure on the
Yugoslav Communists who are re-
belling against Moscow influence,
and was part of an aggressive
Moscow policy. Russia and other
members of the Cominform broke
off their mutual aid and friendship
treaties with Yugoslavia, citing
testimony in the trial as the
reason.
$><>><><<<<<<<<>>><>>~]@