72 Law School Deans, 100 Professors of Law Deplore Soviet Government Actions in Case of Shcharansky

The deans of 72 law schools in the United States, including Puerto Rice, have signed a resolution deploring the actions of the Soviet Union in the case of Anatoly Shcharansky. The resolution, which was also signed by more than 100 law professors, was sent to Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev.

The signatories changed that the Soviet government has held Shcharansky incommunicado since March 15; that no counsel has been provided or permitted to the imprisoned human rights activist; that on Dec. 15 the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet “in a special, secret decree applied only to Shcharansky, has extended for an additional six months his incommunicado investigation and interrogation despite the absence of any express provision of law or constitution authorizing such action”; and that the Soviet government “will give no assurances that Shcharansky’s trial, if one is held, will not be secret.”

The resolution, which was adopted at the recent annual meeting of the Association of American Law Schools in Atlanta, Georgia, said all these actions “run counter to the Rule of Law, minimum standards of justice and Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant of Political and Civil Rights, and the Helsinki Final Act.”

The resolution, written by Dean Peter J. Liacouras, of the Temple University Law School, and by Prof. Burton Caine, also of the university law school, was forwarded last Friday to Brezhnev. “Never in memory have so many law school deans united in support of a single cause,” Liacouras said. “This is an indication to me of the gravity and urgency of the Shcharansky case. I hope this action will persuade the Soviet authorities to release Shcharansky and permit him to emigrate, a right guaranteed to him under law.”

Meanwhile, Soviet security police told Shcharansky’s family to find him a lawyer by Jan. 13, according to reports from Moscow. The reported request by two senior KGB investigators to Shcharansky’s brother, Leonid, indicated pre-trial investigation would be completed by then, if it was not already over. The reports added, however, that it could be several more weeks or even months before any final decision about the trial would be known. One of the KGB investigators indicated that the charge against Shcharansky remains that of treason.

KUZNETSOV CONTINUES HUNGER STRIKE

In a related development, Soviet Jewish Prisoner of Conscience, Edward Kuznetsov, is in his third week of what he declared was a hunger strike “to the death” in the Potma labor camp. The 38-year-old translator, who was sentenced to 15 years in the December 1970 Leningrad “hijack” trial, has declared that he will remain on strike until he and all the other Jewish POCs are released. His wife, Sylva Zalmanson, was released after serving four years of a 10-year prison term and is now residing in Israel.

The Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry and the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews, which reported the hunger strike, also said that Kuznetsov has been hospitalized as a result of his fast and is being force-fed.