For a Fair Trial in Poznan
FINERTY, JOHN F.
For a Fair Trial In Poznan By John F. Finerty United States lawyers offer counsel to Polish strikers What will be the final act of the remarkable drama of Poz-nan? Will the villain of the piece...
...Neither group has thus far received permission to attend the trials, either as observers or as participants, nor has there been any public acknowledgement of their positions...
...Will the villain of the piece be "Western provocateurs" and "imperialist agents...
...The two commissions have some members in common and have decided to cooperate in matters relating to the Polish trials...
...The International Commission referred to the "Act of Athens," a set of procedural codes developed last June by 150 jurists from 43 countries meeting in the Greek capital...
...Within a week after the news of the uprising and the ensuing arrests, groups of lawyers in Europe and in the United States moved to petition the Polish Government to hold fair and open trials, and to permit the presence of legal observers from other nations...
...But both groups are hopeful that the Polish Government, which has shown commendable honesty in facing up to its responsibility for the Pozuau tragedy, will proceed with the trials on a straightforward, fair and open basis...
...The first action was taken by an established organization, the International Commission of Jurists, with headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands...
...3. The accused should have the fullest opportunity for private conferences with counsel of their own choosing...
...Others have won national recognition for their defense of civil liberties cases, including such generally unpopular categories as conscientious objectors...
...In the meantime, American lawyers, only a few of whom are members of the International Commission of Jurists, were searching for a vehicle of action...
...By John F. Finerty, Chairman of the Legal Commission for the Poznan Trials, was counsel for Sacco and Vanzetti and is general counsel for the Works Defense League...
...Several are well known labor lawyers whose devotion to labor dates back to the time when unions could seldom afford legal services...
...In addition, the American commission requested the right to act as counsel for any defendant who was unable to obtain satisfactory representation by members of the Polish bar...
...Members of the American commission include Herman Cooper, Max Delson, H. William Fitelson, Arthur J. Goldberg, Paul R. Hays, Francis Heisler, Theodore W. Kheel, Carl Rachlin, Joseph L. Rauh Jr., William J. Vanden Heuvel, Rowland Watts, and C. Dickerman Williams...
...Or will the Polish Government accept responsibility for the economic pressures which finally exploded in the strike...
...For the prisoners of Poznan have evoked the sympathy not only of the trade unionists, socialists and intellectuals of the free world, but also of that traditionally more cautious fraternity—the legal profession...
...As the Commission's July 24 letter to the Polish Government put it, the Commission "is constituted of lawyers who have achieved recognition in the United States for their notable services in the cause of human rights...
...Thus the American group—the Legal Commission for the Poznan Trials—was under way by mid-July...
...The American commission, wishing to make the simplest possible procedural suggestions, listed the following as being the minimal essentials: 1. Trials should take place in the duly constituted courts of Poland, and not in special courts established for that purpose...
...This was speedily provided by the Workers Defense League, whose record of twenty years of legal service to labor, minority groups and beleaguered individuals made it an excellent choice for the sponsoring organization...
...In the United States and in Europe, recent Polish developments have been keenly observed by a group of men concerned less about the general political implications than about the effect they may exert on the trials of the workers involved in the uprising...
...These principles are unexceptionable, and describe those elements of due process which are the common characteristics of the various national legal systems...
...At this date, the members of both commissions can do little more than scrutinize the newspapers for some word of the Polish trials, which were originally scheduled to begin early in August...
...In their petitions to the Polish Government, both Commissions cited the minimal procedural safeguards for fair trials and urged their adoption...
...2. Trials should be open not only to the Polish public but to legal observers from other nations...
...Government security cases, and organizations contesting their naming on the Attorney General's list...
...In a letter to Prime Minister Cyrankiewicz on July 5 (a week after the uprising), the International Commission called attention to speeches made in the Polish Parliament last year by the Prime Minister and the chairman of the Polish Lawyers Association, expressing their determination to correct past legal abuses and to restore the nation's confidence in the administration of justice...
Vol. 39 • August 1956 • No. 34
