Shamir Appeals to World Public Opinion to Press for the Release of Soviet Jewish Poc Begun

Premier Yitzhak Shamir has appealed to world public opinion to press for the release of Soviet Jewish Prisoner of Conscience losif Begun, who is currently serving a 12-year prison term for “anti-Soviet agitation.”

Shamir told the Cabinet last Sunday that Begun’s health had suddenly deteriorated. The Soviet authorities, Shamir said, allowed Begun to receive medical treatment in a prison hospital after he was held in confinement, but he was returned to solitary confinement after the treatment.

Begun’s mother has not been permitted to visit him, nor has he been allowed to consult with a lawyer, Shamir said. He added that Begun’s only crime was that he taught Hebrew to others who, like him, were denied the right to come to Israel.

A HISTORY OF HARASSMENT

The 51-year-old Begun, an engineer and unofficial teacher of Hebrew in Moscow, was sentenced last October after a three-day trial to seven years imprisonment to be followed by five years of internal exile. This was the maximum sentence the court could have imposed on Begun.

Begun had been the target of harassment by the Soviet authorities. He was first arrested on March 3, 1977 and charged with “parasitism,” having lost his job at the Moscow Central Research Institute years before when he first applied for an exit visa.

He was tried in June, 1977 and sentenced to two years of internal exile which he spent in the remote city of Magadan. He completed his sentence in February, 1978 but was re-arrested that June and sentenced to three more years in Magadan. He returned in August 1980.

On November 6, 1982, he was arrested a third time and charged with “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda.” He was reportedly held in solitary confinement for most the time until his trial opened. He could have drawn a possible sentence of 2-3 years’ internal exile or seven years in prison, plus five years’ internal exile. He drew the maximum.