Two more Jewish activists have been arrested by the KGB in a recent wave of imprisonments in the Soviet Union.
Ari (Leonid) Volvovsky, a long-term refusenik leader who has suffered continuous harassment including dismissal from jobs, confiscation of property, and exile to Gorky, was arrested in Gorky, according to the Coalition to Free Soviet Jews. “The arrest is particularly frightening,” commented Herbert Kronish, chairman of the Coalition, “because he is a major figurehead in refusenik circles.”
The 47-year-old Dnepropetrovsk poet Evgeny Koifman was also arrested during a raid by the KGB on his home for alleged “drug possession” on June 18, the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry reported. The secret police confiscated his Bible, Hebrew books and typewriter.
With the arrest occuring around the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Helsinki Accords, Kronish believes that “The Soviets seem to be flaunting the fact that they have no intention of abiding by the human rights commitments that they made in signing these Accords.”
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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.
