Pavel Abramovitch, a Moscow Jew who has been seeking to emigrate to Israel since 1971, was charged with parasitism last Thursday, the Canadian Committee for Soviet Jewry said it learned yesterday. The Committee said that Abramovitch has a job but has refused to answer questions about his work. He also teaches Hebrew part-time.
The Canadian Committee has also learned that 12 Jewish women seeking emigration visas, who were called in to meet with the head of the Ovir last week, were all refused permission to leave the USSR. Two of the women, Dina Beilin and Natasha Rosenshtein, were told to bring additional information at a later date. One woman, Clarissa Vilenskaye, was denied permission because her parents objected on moral grounds. Yelena Dubinskaye was told she was rejected because one of her relatives works at a job in which he knows military secrets. She was not told who the relative is, according to the Committee.
Meanwhile, the House of Commons decided Thursday to ask the Soviet Union to permit a Canadian observer to attend the upcoming trial of Anatoly Shcharansky, the Soviet Jewish dissident. The House also unanimously endorsed a request by a Conservative MP, Douglas Roche, from Edmonton, that the Canadian government renew its offer to grant Shcharansky immigration status.
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