— Kim Fridman, a long-term refusenik from Kiev, was arrested March 18 and was transferred to a local prison two days ago, it was reported here today by the National Conference on Soviet Jewry (NCSJ). No details were available as to the nature of the charges against him.
The news of Fridman’s arrest follows on the heels of the arrest of another emigration activist, Vladimir Kislik, who was charged last week with “malicious hooliganism,” a charge which could result in his being imprisoned for five years in a labor camp.
Fridman, a 46-year-old radio technician has been arrested several times in the past few years and harassed by the KGB for teaching Hebrew and the history of Russian Jews. Since 1972 he has repeatedly been denied an exit visa to Israel because of his alleged access to secret documents at a Kiev radio plant where he worked. His wife and daughter were allowed to leave in 1976 and have been waiting in Israel for him to join them.
An NCSJ spokesman expressed his fear that an effort may be in progress to crush the small group of Jewish emigration activists in Kiev. Jews in that city feel themselves particularly isolated since the closing of the U.S. Consular offices in Kiev after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
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.
