losif Begun, the Soviet Jewish activist and Hebrew teacher, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison and internal exile, is being held in solitary confinement in Vladimir Prison some 180 miles east of Moscow and all visits have been cancelled. This was reported here today by Jean Martin, a French attorney just back from the Soviet Union.
Martin told a press conference that he is “deeply worried” about Begun’s appeal to a higher court to rescind his sentence. The attorney said that the Soviet Union’s Deputy Attorney General had told him the higher court could decide to rule on Begun’s appeal without even granting him a hearing.
Martin, who spent a week in the Soviet Union, said he had conferred with Begun’s family and with members of the Attorney General’s office. The Attorney General’s deputy told Martin that Begun’s family could hire a Moscow lawyer to attend the appeal hearing “if it can afford to pay the cab fare to Vladimir.”
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