Signs that the Argentine government is accelerating its prisoner release program were underscored by the release of four Jews this past fortnight, according to the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith.
Those liberated after being held for years without being charged include Deborah Benshoam, now 20, imprisoned at 16; Raul Oscar Nudel, a science student jailed in 1974; Pablo Klimovsky, a mathematician incarcerated for three years, and Jorge Gustavo Salischiker, a lithographer, held for two years after completion of his sentence.
Abraham Foxman, ADL’s associate national director and head of the ADL’s International Affairs Department, said that these prisoners had been the focus of international attention following the world wide distribution of the ADL pamphlet, “Why Are These People in Argentine Jails? Where are the Disappeared?” after its publication last May.
Foxman noted that the release of the prisoners indicates that Argentine authorities are “registering some achievements” in moving toward the restoration of constitutional rights. But he stressed that “it is important, nevertheless, to continue public pressure until all those held without charges are either set free or formally charged and tried.”
To that end, ADL’s Argentine Prisoner Project has published a revised edition of the Prisoner Project pamphlet, with the names and relevant data on additional prisoners and individuals who have vanished without a trace. ADL’s Prisoner Project is under the direction of Rabbi Morton Rosenthal, head of the ADL’s Latin American Affairs Department.
Four of the six prisoners highlighted in the original edition of the pamphlet — Ms. Benshoam, Klimovsky,
Eduardo Grutzky and Norberto Ignacio Liwsky are now out of jail. In addition, Rafael Rey, whose case was described in a supplementary list issued by the Prisoner Project in August, has been released. He and Liwsky are paroled to what is known as “supervised liberty.”
“On the other hand,” Foxman said, “no information has been forthcoming, despite many requests and petitions, about the fate of any of the disappeared listed by the Project.” He added that appeals from relatives of prisoners and disappeared persons continue to come to ADL’s Argentine Prisoner Project and representations about each individual are made to the proper Argentine authorities.
ADL recently received from Argentine government officials a list of 6,070 individuals released from P.E. N. (Detention by order of the National Executive Power) since March 24, 1976. Foxman noted that despite this record and recent releases, more than 800 uncharged prisoners remain incarcerated, while the number of the disappeared is estimated at over 15,000.
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