Soviet Jewish Prisoner of Conscience losif Begun, who was sentenced to two years in exile in Siberia for “parasitism,” has been released, it was reported today by the National Conference on Soviet Jewry and the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry. Begun, an engineer, who had been forced to leave his job when he applied to emigrate, had been working as a Hebrew teacher at the time of his arrest. Begun’s release came seven months after his trial in June 1977. He was given over a year’s credit for time served for his pre-trial imprisonment.
In another development, the New York Conference said it learned that Ilya Glezer, a former Prisoner of Conscience, has been promised permission to emigrate to Israel, where he will be rejoining his 20-year-old daughter. Glezer, a biologist, served three years in a labor camp and three years in exile on the trumped up charges of disseminating anti-Soviet propaganda.
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