Informed visitors returning here from Leningrad have reported that, contrary to all rumors, Gedalia Pechersky, former lay chairman of the Leningrad Jewish community, who was sentenced in 1961 to 12 years’ imprisonment, has not been released from prison.
Sentenced with Mr. Pechersky, then 60, were two other lay leaders, Nachum A. Kaganov, and S.S. Dinkin. They received lighter sentences because of their advanced ages. The trials and sentences touched off world-wide protests. The three Jewish leaders were arrested on charges of “consorting with foreign agents” and “crimes against the state.”
The visitors reported that all persons seeking Mr. Pechersky’s release have been told there was no prospect of his being freed before 1969. Mr. Dinkin and Mr. Kaganov were released in 1965.
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