Matteotti Trial

Some 15 months ago (TIME, June 23, 1924) occurred the famed Matteotti murder, a scandal that rocked Fascism to its foundations. As he walked one evening beside Tiber, Giacomo Matteotti, multi-millionaire Socialist Deputy, was set upon by fanatical blackshirts who jumped out of a closed automobile and seized him from behind. Bundling him into their machine, they kidnapped and brutally murdered him. For days a rigid Fascist censorship released only news that he had "disappeared." Then the details of the crime leaked out. Charges were preferred against prominent Fascists. II Benito himself did not escape the implication of ultimate responsibility. The entire Italian Cabinet turned in its resignation. And Dictator Mussolini barely kept his seat.

Since then preparations for the trial of the alleged murderers have dragged, out interminably. The first anniversary of the crime TIME, June 22, 1925) passed off quietly, after Fascist and Socialist, demonstrations had been severely nipped in the bud.

Now at last it is announced that the King's Attorney (Prosecutor) has completed his case against the accused, and that "the trial will probably take place next year." It is considered that public opinion has sufficiently subsided for the proceedings to be held in or near Rome.

There is talk of attempting to prove that Matteotti's slayers originally intended only to kidnap him, and that his murder "was more or less of a mistake." Both the alleged instigators of the crime and those accused of the actual murder will be prosecuted. But the former, even if convicted, will escape under the scope of the last general amnesty, which condones all political crimes except murder.