U.S. TO PRESS CASE AGAINST CLERIC ACCUSED OF RUMANIA WAR CRIMES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100070018-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: September 27, 1979
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100070018-5 STAT
A1;TZCI. AITZARED 27 YORK EPTTIMES
27 s ~, 1
U.S. to Press Case Against Cleric
Accused of Rumania War Crimes
WASHINGTON, Sept: 26 - Justice De-
partment officials say that evidence ob-
tained last month in Rumania has helped
them strengthen a long-postponed case
against Bishop Valerian Trifa on charges
that he deceived the American authori.
ties about his involvement in a 1941 mas-
sacre of Rumanian Jews.-_
The case against Bishop.Trifa, who is
in a form of suspension as a prelate of the
Rumanian Orthodox Episcopate of Amer-
ica, an affiliate of the Orthodox Church in
America that has its headquarters in
Grass Lake, Mich., was originally sched-
uled to come to trial-in Detroit in July.
Charges filed four years ago, which he
has denied, said he misrepresented his
past to become a United States citizen.
He entered the country in 1950 and ob.
tained citizenship in 1957.
Government prosecutors are attempt-
ing to prove that Bishop Trifa, as a leader
of a Rumanian student movement before
979
World War 11, assumed a central role in
the Iron Guard, a pro-Nazi organization
that organized a rebellion against the
Rumanian Army in January 1941. Before
the rebellion was crushed Iron Guard
toughs rounded up hundreds, possibly
thousands, of Bucharest Jews and killed
them., Bishop Trifa has consistently
denied taking part in either the rebellion
or the massacre.
Justice Department officials said that
on the basis of their newly acquired evi
deuce they were more hopeful that the
case could be won, leading to deportation
procedings and possibly to prosecutions
of other alleged war criminals in this
country.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100070018-5