Attorney Offers to Lead U.S. Lawyers to Observe Zavurov Trial

In a phone conversation with the Soviet Union’s Procurator General’s office in Moscow, Martin Garbus, New York civil liberties attorney and representative of Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov in recent discussions with the State Department, today offered to lead a group of American lawyers to observe the upcoming appeal of Soviet Jew, Amner Zavurov, scheduled for Feb. 10 in the Uzbek city of Karshi.

Garbus, who recently returned from the USSR told a press conference of the National Lawyers Committee for Soviet Jewry (NLC) that the Zavurov case is a typical “Catch-22 situation.”

“Zavurov was sentenced on Jan. 13 to three years in prison for being without an internal passport, being without a job and for disorderly conduct,” Garbus explained. “Obviously, as he had been given permission to emigrat in October, 1975, his internal passport had been taken away by Soviet authorities. Through bureaucratic mismanagement, the Soviets never issued a new visa and tried to force Zavurov to accept his internal documents. The Soviet authorities are guilty of unwarranted harassment as well as abuse of Soviet law.”

Garbus said among those prepared to join him are Mario Merola, Bronx District Attorney; David Sindell of Cleveland; and Burton Levinson and Bradley Marcus of Beverly Hills, Cal. Levinson and Marcus were permitted by Soviet officials to observe the trial of Victor Polsky in Moscow, in March, 1974.

Alvin K. Hellerstein, NLC chairman, pointed out that the current situation for Soviet Jews is severe. “A trial against Soviet Jewish activist Naum Salansky of Vilnius, for allegedly having in his possession materials which defame the character’ of the USSR, is being prepared by local Lithuanian officials.”