The trial of Lazar Lubarsky opened in Rostov yesterday under a tight lid of secrecy. All spectators were barred and 16 defense witnesses, including Lubarsky’s wife, Galina Pevzner were kept out of the courtroom during the opening session which lasted 11 hours Mrs. Lubarsky and nine other witnesses were permitted to enter the court and give evidence today, Jewish sources in the Soviet Union reported.
Lubarsky, a 46-year-old engineer who was chief engineer of the high tension networks institute in Rostov, has been charged with violating paragraph 190-1 of the Soviet penal code pertaining to “slandering the Soviet system. He is also charged under Art. 75.1 with “revealing State secrets.”
Lubarsky had applied for a visa to go to Israel. He was arrested on July 18, 1972 after an extensive search of his home during which documents were confiscated. Prior to his arrest he was subjected to harassment and interrogation by the KGB (secret-police), Jewish sources said. They reported that his 20-year-old daughter, Nelli, received threatening letters at her school and was asked to denounce her father because he wanted to go to Israel.
Lubarsky’s defense lawyer, a woman, has called two well-known Moscow Jewish activists, Viktor
Polski and Vlakimir Prestin, to testify on his behalf. But they were not permitted to enter the courtroom today. All other trials scheduled to take place in the building were cancelled.
Meanwhile, 32 Jews from Vilna cabled the chairman of the Rostov District Court announcing that they were holding a 24-hour hunger strike beginning today as a demonstration of solidarity with Lubarsky. Jewish sources said Lubarsky was vulnerable to Soviet authorities because he was isolated in a city where there are no Western newspaper correspondents or tourists and few other Jewish activists. The sources said there was evidence that Soviet, authorities would try to link Lubarsky with certain other Jewish activists in Moscow with reference to initiating and signing “slanderous” petitions.
CONGRESSMEN PROTEST-TRIAL OF LUBARSKY
(In Washington,-Congressmen called on Soviet leaders to free Lubarsky. Addressing the House, Rep. Edward Koch (R.NY) said Lubarsky’s case is further evidence of the continuing harassment by the Soviet government of its. Jewish citizens. He called on Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin to intercede on behalf of Lubarsky and asked him further to urge the Soviet government to allow Lubarsky to emigrate. In a letter to Communist Party Secretary Leonid Brezhnev, Congressman Norman Lent (R. NY) stated. “We are appalled by the violation of human rights apparent in this case. We appeal to you and your colleagues to intercede on behalf of the defendant.”)
(The Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry reported that thousands of telegrams and communications have been sent by political, religious and legal personalities and other concerned New Yorkers in an effort to gain Lubarsky’s release.)
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
