The National Conference on Soviet Jewry reported today that 22 Jewish activists, denied permission to emigrate to Israel were released yesterday and Monday after having served 15-day sentences for peaceful protest demonstrations in Moscow last month.
Anatoly Shcharansky, one of those arrested, said that he had been kept in a detention center for drunks and hooligans. He said that the 30-35 men were forced to “live like cattle,” crowded together in a cell 18 feet by 27 feet with iron bed frames for 24 people. Those without bed frames had to sleep on the floor.
“We must not forget that two men are still being held,” NCSJ chairman Eugene Gold, said “Boris Chernobilsky and losif Ahs, both charged with malicious hooliganism under a criminal statute that could bring them one to five years in prison, now await trial for their peaceful protest. The actions by the Soviet authorities represents their hardening attitude towards Jews seeking to emigrate to Israel.”
In another development, the NCSJ said it has learned that former Prisoner of Conscience Lazar Luibarsky has received an exit permit to emigrate to Israel, while former POC Yuri Vudka has been told that he must leave Pavlograd for Israel within the next two weeks. Vudka, upon release from prison, was under house arrest in Pavlograd and recently began a hunger strike to protest his application’s refusal.
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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.
