December 4, 1952
EXECUTIONS: Paris, 3 – According to telegrams from Vienna, 11 leading Czech communists were hanged this morning in Panderas Prison, where they were held after receiving death sentences for high treason against the (communist) regime. Slansky, the former general secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia; Deputy Prime Minster Gemeinder, once director of the party secretariat’s international section; Clementis, a former foreign minister; Reicin, a former national defense minister; Margolius, a former assistant minister for foreign trade; Sling, a former secretary for Moravi; Simone, former editor of the newspaper Rude Pravo; Franke, former assistant general secretary of the party; Fischl, former assistant finance minister, and Swab, former assistant minister for national defense, paid at dawn for the bad idea they had believed in and wasted their lives for. ARRESTS: The recent move by Athens General Security forces to block off some roads in order to make identity checks was aimed at finding and arresting groups of young communists from the cell led by recently executed Nikos Beloyiannis. (…) So far, the arrests of nine people have been announced – Christos Hadzimichalis, a 35-year-old shoemaker; Nikolaos Anastasiadis, an 18-year-old plumber; Anastassios Plevris, 19, marble worker; Petros Aboulos, 20; Maria Hani, 21; her 19-year-old sister Eleni; Dionysis Spinos, 21; Philippos Kalafatis, 21, and Stylianos Economopoulos, 18.
