The Staffordshire and Potteries Examiner. — 1881-05-07 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

THE MURDER OF ABDUL AZIZ.  The Constantinople correspondent of the Standard furnishes the following account of the crime :—lt would appear that one of the ladies of Mahaiond Damad's harem, smarting under a sense of ill-treatment or neglect, first of all disclosed the circumstances of the crime in order to avenge her wrongs. According to the evidence which has come out in course of examination, after the fall of Abdul Aziz, a committee was formed, composed of Hussein A.vni Pasha, Damad Pasha, and Nonni Pasha, the last two being sons-in-law of Abdul Medjid, and two Grand Vizers, Midhat Pasha, the present Governor of Smyrna, and old Malimud Ruchdi Pasha for the purpose of rating an end to Abdul Aziz. It is also stated that roberry was the motive of the crime, his late Majesty being possessed of many valuables. A certain Fahri Bey, the second chamberlain to Abdul Aziz, who enjoyed his master's full coufidence, was selected to commit the crime. At the given moment Fahri placed sentinels over the door of the room occupied by the Sultan's mother, and immediately adjoining the unfortunate monarch's apartments. The sentinels and eunuchs of the palace were ordered not to allow the Sultan's mother to enter her son's rooms, andif she should attempt to effect an entrance they were to kill her. At the same moment Fahri Bey secretly introduced into the apartment of the late Sultan two more eunuchs and a professional wrestler, named Pomak Ibrahaim, who is a Bulgarian Mussulman. Fahri then threw himself upon his victim, pushed him down on the sofa, and sitting astride on the Sultan's head prevented him calling for assistance. He then called to Ibrahaim to open his veins with a dagger, whilst his feet were held by two blacks. Ibrahaim proceeded to carry out his instructions, and opened first a vein in the right arm. The Sultan, who possessed considerable muscular strength, endeavoured to cast off his assassins, and actually succeeded in freeing himself from Fahri's grasp. The latter, however, again seized his victim, and ,struck him several blows with such force as to break several of the Sultan's teeth, whilst Ibrahaim was hacking at the vein of the left arm. Finaliy, Abdul Aziz fell to the ground unconscious from loss of blood, and the assassins thereupon ordered that no alarm should be given; and, certain that their victim would shortly breathe his last, they left the room, after placing a pair of scissors steeped in blood in the Sultan's left hand, and they carefully locked the door of the apartment. A few minutes later Fahri Bey, pretending to have just arrived at the Palace, returned to the scene of the crime, knocked at the door, as if he wished to take his master's commands, and, hearing no sound issue from inside, feigned uneasiness, broke open the door, entered, and saw the Sultan bathed in blood. Acting his part with consummate skill, he aroused the household by his cries and lamentation. The Sultan's mother, the ladies of the harem, the children and servants, all rushed upon the scene. Meanwhile Fahri impressed upon all around a conviction of the sincerity of his feigned distress, and succeeded in making them believe that the Sultan, attacked by a fit of melancholy, had, whilst alone in his rooms, committed suicide. Hussein Avni, in turn informed of what had happened, arrived on the scene, and ordered the victim to be covered with a sheet and removed to the guard-room immediately above the apartment. The body, which also bore traces of stabs on the stomach, delivered during the struggle, was then dressed in a shirt and drawers, leaving, so the evidence goes, only the arms and face visible. The doctors summoned to draw up a medical report as to the cause of death were then admitted to examine the body, but were only allowed to see the arms and face. The well-known report, tending to show that the death was a suicide, was then drawn up and signed by all the members of the medical body present.