A Moscow announcement that the death penalty and a 26-year prison term had been imposed more than a year ago for the attempted hijacking of a Soviet airliner was described by an American Jewish Congress spokesman as “part of a Soviet propaganda campaign to prepare the world for the imminent show trial and punishment of 34 Jews whose only crime is their desire to make their home in Israel.” Richard Cohen, associate executive director of the Congress, said that the delay in the show trials, originally scheduled to take place in November and now set for Dec. 15. “may well have been caused by the Soviet regime’s desire to launch a more extensive effort to whip up public opinion on the hijacking issue.” He said that the year-old hijacking sentence, reported several days ago by UPI Moscow’s correspondent, Henry Shapiro, apparently did not involve Jews but rather a family headed by one Galina Slovenchik. But he warned that the 34 Russian Jews charged with air piracy would face the same penalty as that imposed on the Slovenchik family.
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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.
