No. 613.
Mr. Heap to Mr. Evarts.
Legation of the United States,
Constantinople, March 30, 1880.
(Received April 19.)
No. 5.]
Sir: I had the honor to transmit in No. 4,
dated 26th instant, a copy of the memorandum to the Sublime Porte, drawn
up at a meeting of
[Page 977]
the foreign
representatives at the British embassy on the 25th, in relation to the
sentence of Veli Mehemet, the murderer of Colonel Kummeran, military
attaché of the Russian embassy. They met again yesterday to consider the
reply of the Porte.
A copy of this paper, as well as of a second pro-memoria of the heads of
missions in answer to it, is inclosed. I send also inclosed slips from
the Levant Herald of the 27th and 30th instant, bearing on the same
subject.
I am, &c.,
G. H. HEAP,
Chargé d’ Affaires ad
interim.
[Inclosure 1 in No.
5.—Translation.]
pro-memoria.
In answer to the pro-memoria of their excellencies the chiefs of
missions in relation to the criminal suit against Mehemet the
Sublime Porte hastens to declare that no sentence has as yet been
rendered by the court-martial which was appointed to try him.
The Sublime Porte declares at the same time that for the purpose of
throwing light upon the decisions of the law, and to secure the
guarantees that are due to every accused person, as well as the
vigorous repression of crime, it has decided that the person of
Mehemet shall be submitted to the examination of a commission
composed of the physicians of the foreign missions, to whom will be
joined the doctors who have already examined the mental condition of
the accused, and other medical notabilities of the country; that
this commission, which shall have every power and every facility to
examine the accused in the manner it shall consider best, shall make
its opinion on the mental state of Mehemet known in a report
addressed to the Sublime Porte; that finally this report shall be
transmitted to the court-martial, which, according as the
conclusions of the report shall establish that Mehemet is of sound
mind or afflicted with mental alienation, shall pronounce his
condemnation to capital punishment or his acquittal.
The Sublime Porte believes it has the right to protest against the
intention of screening a guilty person from a deserved punishment,
and to declare that it has ever sought and continues to seek the
truth; that it is as far from wishing to frustrate the ends o
justice as it is anxious to prevent a madman from being smitten.
[Inclosure 2 in No.
5.—Translation.]
pro-memoria.
The chiefs of foreign missions have received with satisfaction the
information that the sentence of Veil Mehemet, such as it was
reported to them, has, as a matter of fact, not been rendered. They
continue, nevertheless, under the apprehension that they expressed
in their first pro-memoria in regard to a trial which interests in
the highest degree the security of foreigners residing in the
empire, as regards the information that the Sublime Pone has been
pleased to furnish on the subject of the ulterior examination to be
made into the mental condition of the person accused, the chiefs of
missions wish to declare that it is not their intention to intervene
in any way in the acts of the procedure, nor to assume the least
responsibility in its results. In consequence, no physician
belonging to the foreign missions will be authorized to attend at
the examination of the person accused. When the sentence, which the
chiefs of missions consider as urgent, shall have been rendered they
will take it into consideration and communicate it to their
respective governments.
Constantinople, March 29, 1880.
