Meanwhile, Moritz Lewy had been committed for perjury on the ground of his denial of acquaintance with Winter; and although he held to his original statement, and in spite of the fact that he could have had no reason for perjuring himself other than the fear of involving himself in difficulties, he was sentenced to four years in the penitentiary (February 13, 1901). He was released, however, on October 12, 1903, when the emperor granted his pardon. His father had long before removed to Berlin, as his business had been entirely ruined, which also was the case with many others, so that the number of Jews residing in Konitz fell from 481 in 1900 to 350 in 1903. Of great importance was an investigation made in Danzig by the board of health (Königliches Medizinalkollegium) for West Prussia, which proved that Winter had been choked to death, and that, contrary to the statement of the county physician, his death was not the result of the cutting of his throat. This opinion, rendered September 7, 1901, was confirmed by the highest medical authority, the Wissenschaftliche Deputation für Medizinalwesen (state board of health), January 15, 1902. It was further shown that jealousy was, in all likelihood, the motive of his death. Again, it was evidently for political reasons that the appeal of Winter's father to the superior court (Oberlandesgericht) of Marienwerder was considered sufficiently well founded to be made the basis of a trial, which was held June 4, 1902, and which proved the baselessness of all the accusations against the Jews. The government showed itself stronger in prosecuting cases of libeling the authorities. Bruhn, the publisher, and Bötticher, the editor, of the "Staatsbürgerzeitung", which paper had from the beginning accused the police and the courts of shielding the perpetrators of the crime because they were Jews, were sentenced for libel, the former to six months and the latter to one year in jail (October 11, 1902). Both of them, however, were elected to the Reichstag in 1903. Previously G. A. Dewald, a Berlin publisher, had been sentenced to six months in jail because on the first anniversary of Winter's assassination he had published souvenir postal cards representing Winter suspended by his feet in Lewy's cellar and the Jews ready to cut his throat. A sad sequel to the Konitz trial was the cruel murder of a Polish typesetter, Abraham Levy, in Steegers, West Prussia (September 28, 1903), by two drunkards, who taunted him with the murder and, when he resented the insult in offensive language, beat him to death.