"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٥‎٥‎٩] (١٧٨٢/١٧١٤)

1559
""via/
hill
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Dragoman not to sign the depositions taken in Court. Two days later
Mr. Plowden rejoined that, it' evidence was not forthcoming, it was
because the action of the police had been perfunctory and inefficient in
the highest degree, and that, the police being under the control of the
Wilayat, a very grave responsibility rested on His Excellency.
In reporting the case at length to the Foreign Office, Mr. Plowden
justified such of his actions as might appear open to criticism by
explaining the peculiar features of the regime then existing at Baghdad.
There was absolutely no prospect of foreigners obtaining justice in the
Turkish Courts or of the Turkish police doing anything to secure the
perpetrators of even the worst crimes against them. This had been fully
proved by other recent cases, and the Resident was supported in his atti
tude by the opinion of his* foreign colleagues.
Mrs. Milne eventually appeared in the Turkish Court to give evi
dence, and Muhammad Salih was taken into custody. He and his ser
vant Ahmad were tried ; but, while the latter was convicted and sen
tenced to 15 years'' imprisonment, the former was acquitted on the
ground that there was no proof of his complicity.
At the urgent instance of Lord Duiferin, Her Britannic Majesty s
Ambassador at the Porte, the proceedings of the Baghdad Court were
quashed by the Court of Appeal at Constantinople on an application for
revision, and a fresh trial was ordered. But the result of the second
trial was the acquittal of both accused on the 19th June 188?., and the^
were then released on bail.
Renewed representations by the British Embassy procured the
transfer of the case for retrial to Diyarbakr ; but again the proceedings
ended without a conviction.
The judgment of the Diyarbakr Court was annulled, like those
preceding it by the Court of Appeal at Constantinople , and in 1887 or
1888 a final trial was held at Aleppo, which terminated in favour of the
accused. Of the guilt of the prisoners there seems to have been no
moral doubt; but the wealth and influence of Muhammad Sahh aided
doubtless by racial and religious feeling availed to frustrate the deman s
of justice.
• Madame Dleulafoy probably relkrte the French offlcal ° ^ arrivait
,he says (La Perse, etc.. page 588) i " Dernierement encore, m
de Newhaven a etc poignarde en plein jour. Le c.nsul ^ 1 ^ ^ Tm ,
de I'aesassin rt a ddsigne les temoins du crrme. . W
nature llement, vaqae a «» affaires, il na jamars etc questrou de lauetei,
encore de le uiettre en accusation.