NEW YORK (Jun. 16)
The appeal from a one-year sentence for Kiev refusenik Lev Elbert was denied today, according to the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry and the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews.
The 35-year-old engineer asked the authorities that his wife be given permission to receive kosher canned meat from abroad to give him in prison.
He was sentenced on May 25 by a local Kiev court for alleged refusal to submit to an army reserve callup. He refused on the grounds that this would subject him to a secrecy designation which would further block his immigration to Israel.
He was not jailed after the May 25 trial but now must begin serving a labor camp sentence.
