Noted Swindler-Professor Demands Freedom Under Extradition Treaty

Another chapter is about to be written in the lurid history of Joao Frederico Normano, big-time German counter feiting swindler and former Harvard professor, who yesterday, at his final hearing, brought a declaration into federal court claiming that under the American-German extradition treaty he should have been discharged from bondage last May instead of being deprived of his freedom up until now.

Normano, who is a recognized authority on South American economics and gave a course in advanced economics during the first half of last year, is wanted badly in Berlin to face charges that he is Isaak Lewin, wiley banker alleged to have perpetrated with a confederate a three-quarter-million dollar swindle back in 1928 and 1929.

The case has recently assumed international importance and interest because it places the United States in a peculiarly difficult position. Under the terms of the treaty, he should have been either taken to Germany with 60 days of the close of his case in March, 1933, or else, discharged a free man once more. His plea for not being deported to Germany, and in the light of recent happenings it is admittedly well founded, is that he will not obtain a fair trial under the Hitler government because he is of the Jewish faith. And now, and with plenty of legal backing, he accuses the State Department and the German government with failing to heed the extradition treaty, claiming that since he was not deported within the 60-day limit, he should have been released last year regardless of his guilt or innocence. Despite all this, the Hitler government still demands his extradition to the Fatherland, Normano, or Lewin, demands his freedom, and Uncle Sam is left stauding alone to make a decision, which, no matter on whose side it falls, is bound to stir up ill-feeling against the mediator.