The trial of Azour Zalta and Yossef Shalom, the two Jewish youths accused of killing four Jewish women has begun in Syria and already completed two sessions behind closed doors, it was learned today by the American Sephardi Federation (ASF).
Haim Eliachar, ASF president, stated that “on the eve of President Nixon’s visit to the Middle East and the opening of diplomatic channels with Syria, we trust that the Syrian government will follow universally accepted judicial procedure by allowing the defendants full legal representation.”
Eliachar added that “we fervently hope that President Nixon will encourage the Syrian government to grant its 4,500 Jews the right to emigrate.”
Meanwhile, a bi-partisan group of 38 congressmen have asked President Nixon to intervene on behalf of Syrian Jewry while he is in Damascus. The Rabbinical Alliance and the Rabbinical Council of America have sent telegrams to Nixon asking him to push for free emigration for Jews in his talks with the Syrian leaders.
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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.
