The Trial of Grecce's Hero-Traitor
EBON, MARTIN
THE TRIAL OF GREECE'S HERO-TRAITOR Major Communist propaganda effort to undermine Greek judicial proceedings fails By Martin Ebon ATHENS IN MAY 1941, a young man of 19 made his way through a...
...Two of the defendants, found guilty of espionage, were condemned to life imprisonment...
...At one time, the Communist party sent Glezos to the Cyclades islands to reorganize local party groups...
...In or out of jail, freed or found guilty, Glezos and those like him will remain useful propaganda symbols of Communism...
...Premier Constantine Karamanlis said that it was "astonishing that a case of espionage against the security of the country, established by the responsible prosecution authorities and now being tried in accordance with the existing law of the State, causes the mobilization of international Communism...
...Exasperated, the president of the court martial said at one point that many Greeks had acted heroically, "but they did not deposit their heroism, in order to draw dividends from it later on...
...Testimony indicated that Glezos had persuaded his step-sister...
...agency...
...In November 1957, Glezos visited the Soviet Union...
...The sentence was handed down by the Permanent Military Tribunal of Athens under Law 375, which is directed against "criminal action which threatens the external security of the nation...
...The Glezos trial would have been relatively routine (except for the tragic reversal of the accused's public role), had it not been for the enormous, world-wide Communist propaganda effort to turn the proceedings into an indictment of Greek judicial practices...
...they are only too often the victims of their own vanity...
...There were no records of the Glezos-Colliyiannis talks, no secret tape recordings, no conversations overheard by Mr...
...Greek authorities maintain that he utilized this trip to confer with Greek Communist officials in various Iron Curtain countries...
...In Paris, the Communist newspaper Humanite on May 12 published an appeal of the so-called "International Committee for the Defense of Manolis Glezos," asserting that he "stands as a symbol of Greece throughout the world...
...The most brazen effort to make propaganda capital out of the trial come directly from Moscow: Soviet President Klimenti Voroshilov addressed a message to King Paul of Greece, drawing attention to Glezos' heroic action, but ignoring the fact that the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany had been allies at the time of the Acropolis flag incident...
...Glezos' act of youthful defiance may have put him into a psychological situation not unlike that of a prodigy in music or the arts: For the rest of his life he has to live up to a too-early public image of himself...
...In addition to the resident correspondents for the Soviet news MARTIN EBON, who has just returned from an extensive tour of Greece, is author of World Communism Today...
...Dolianitou...
...It maintains a full-scale underground apparatus, complete with secret radio transmitters, couriers and several intelligence networks...
...In Moscow, crowds demonstrated before the Greek Embassy on July 3 and 9; in London, pickets carried different slogans each day for about a week...
...They had known it would be difficult to try a war-time hero, but they had apparently not anticipated the extent and intensity of feeling that the Moscow-inspired hero-worship would create...
...During the trial, two-thirds of the time was devoted to defendants' testimony, pleas of defense counsel and examination of witnesses for the defense...
...Glezos' romantic act in 1941 had a simplicity and strength that appealed to the drama-loving, patriotic Greeks and thereafter he became a useful figure for Communist propaganda, prestige and activities...
...Vassiliki Dolianitou...
...Tass, and for Pravda, five reporters had come from Czechoslovakia (including Ota Vaclavik of Rude Pravo in Prague) and two representatives of Italian Communist papers (including Sergio Segre of L'Unita in Rome), as well as Dante Groniquie...
...Vice President of the Communist - controlled International Union of Journalists...
...His denial was contradicted by Mr...
...Yesterday's hero had become today's confidant and collaborator of conspirators against Greece...
...Thus, the Court's conclusion that espionage had not been proven in Glezos' case would seem to reflect the limits of the data on hand...
...Various protest messages were received by Greek diplomatic representatives in Moscow, London and Germany, and in Warsaw, Bucharest, Budapest and Sofia...
...His activities caused his imprisonment, which, however, ended in amnesty before the full sentence was served...
...Protest demonstrations, letters and telegrams were part of the propaganda barrage...
...In East Germany, a pamphlet entitled "The Knight of the Acropolis" was published...
...Yesterday's hero, before the military tribunal, had become today's potential or actual traitor...
...yet its agents move back and forth across the frontiers of Bulgaria and Albania...
...Glezos...
...and her husband...
...He is Constantine Colliyiannis...
...No written communications between the two men were presented to the Court as evidence...
...which acts for the outlawed Communist party) and as manager of the newspaper Avghi (Dawn), Glezos is "an incarnation of fundamental liberties...
...Excerpts from an introduction by Albert Norden appeared in the East Berlin newspaper Neues Deutschland, which wrote: "And today the English-American-controlled Greek reactionaries are tacking an espionage trial onto Glezos, to this daring darling of the nation, who had put the fate of his fatherland high above his own life...
...Communist reporters attended the trial in unprecedented numbers...
...The pro-Glezos propaganda barrage appalled Greek officials...
...a member of the party's Politburo...
...Glezos left jail on July 26, 1954, after which he joined the Executive Committee of EDA and became an editor of Avghi...
...Glezos denied any dealings with Colliyiannis—alleging at the same time that, had there been such dealings, they would merely have been those of a staff member of Avghi, who would naturally want to interview such a prominent figure as Colliyiannis...
...The paper added that, as a director of the Leftist Democratic Union (the crypto-Communist Greek party EDA...
...The Moscow Journalists Club gave a reception to honor the anniversary of Glezos' removal of the Nazi flag...
...And this was the basis of the charge against Glezos...
...The Central Committee of Soviet Trade Unions issued a protest, as did the Soviet War Veterans and the Committee of Youth Organizations of the Soviet Union...
...No matter what Glezos did, the flag incident remained impressed upon the public mind...
...But last July 22...
...The Greek military mission in West Berlin also was the target of Communist-organized demonstrations...
...THE TRIAL OF GREECE'S HERO-TRAITOR Major Communist propaganda effort to undermine Greek judicial proceedings fails By Martin Ebon ATHENS IN MAY 1941, a young man of 19 made his way through a hidden tunnel to the top of the Acropolis, where the Nazi occupiers of Greece had hoisted their swastika...
...now 37 years old, had been an editor of the Communist party newspaper Rizospastis before the party and its publications were outlawed...
...They are victims of their own accomplishments, their acts of real or accidental heroism, their excellence in the arts or sciences—and, in the end...
...and Mrs...
...it seeks to maintain special contact with certain segments of the population, including the armed forces, teachers, farmers, women, youths...
...He was also active in the Communist-controlled Greek National Liberation Army ( ELAS), which sought unsuccessfully to gain control of Greece during the guerilla war from 1947 to 1949...
...He was a group leader in the Communist Youth League (EPON...
...The case against Glezos was based on the apparent fact that he had harbored and consulted with the man who today is probably the most prominent Greek Communist and who conducts party underground activities from outside the country, presumably from headquarters in Bucharest...
...This act of daring made Emanuel (Manolis) Glezos a national hero...
...Evidence regarding Glezos' own participation in espionage was not considered conclusive...
...He was sentenced under legal provisions covering persons who fail to report to the authorities on espionage activities of which they have gained knowledge...
...He managed to avoid the German sentry and hauled down the flag...
...But the Glezos case contains elements for which there is no judicial yardstick...
...he was sentenced to five years' imprisonment, four years' exile and eight years' loss of civil rights...
...For years thereafter, in spite of his extensive activities as a Communist, Glezos enjoyed affection and respect...
...and participated in the Communist attempt to gain control of Greece by armed force in December 1944...
...George, to put Colliyiannis up at iheir house in Athens last August...
...Contact with the leading official of an outlawed part), which operates from outside the country and has consistently sought to gain control of the nation by armed force or infiltration, may well be considered a form of activity dangerous to Greece's external security...
...The Greek Communist party has a black record: civil war, murder, torture, espionage, sabotage, wholesale kidnappings, treason...
...the International Federation of Resistance Fighters issued a pamphlet...
...Dolianitou...
...He did so by asserting that the visitor was a member of the Glezos family, from the island of Naxos...
...It is illegal...
...or Mrs...
...Communist propaganda studiously avoided the actual issues of the trial of Glezos and his associates—six co-defendants were sentenced to imprisonment ranging from one year to life...
Vol. 42 • August 1959 • No. 30
