Amnesty International of the United States called on Soviet Communist Party Secretary Leonid I. Brezhnev today to commute the death sentence imposed on Mikhail Leviev, a Moscow Jew accused of alleged economic crimes. Dr. Ivan Morris, national chairman of the American Section of the world-wide human rights organization, termed the sentence “monstrously excessive” and urged Brezhnev to commute it “on humanitarian grounds and to grant this man permission to Join his family in Israel.”
Jewish sources in the Soviet Union reported Tuesday that Leviev’s sentence was temporarily stayed by President Nikolai Podgorny in response to an appeal by Leviev’s wife, Sophia. Mrs. Leviev was reportedly told by Podgorny that the case would be reopened and a new investigation ordered. Leviev, 56, managed a large government store in Moscow from which he resigned in 1971 before applying for an exit visa to emigrate to Israel.
A visa was granted in 1972 but he was arrested before he could leave and held in detention until his trial earlier this month. He was sentenced to death on Dec. 9. Dr. Morris said “The sentence flies in the face of the detente mood that the world eagerly awaits to enhance the prospects for peace.”
CONCERN OVER LEVICH CASE
The Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry, meanwhile, has expressed deep concern over the failure of the Soviet authorities to live up to their public pledge to allow Benjamin Levich and his family to leave the country at the end of this year. Bronx Borough President Robert Abrams, a vice-chairman of the GNYC, said the Soviets had promised last June that Levich, a scientist, his wife, their two sons and their wives could emigrate by the end of 1974.
Abrahs said he spoke to the Levich family by phone this week and found them “deeply distressed” by the authorities’ abrogation of their commitment. He said that Levich told him they might be able to leave by the end of March but feared that their visas might be invalidated.
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.
