Abstract

An American Lawyer Takes Notes

The article presents information on a military trial that was attended by the author at Athens. He was one of the eight lawyers attending the trial as observers, the other being from France, West Germany, Belgium, Sweden and England. The trial opened with a reading of the indictment and other formalities. The principal defendants admitted that they were seeking to overthrow the present government which three years earlier, following democratic elections, had illegally seized power. However, the defendants denied that they intended to use force to gain this objective. Most of them were Communists and, because of the military dictatorship, had gone underground. The prosecutor introduced no evidence to prove that the defendants possessed weapons for that purpose.