losif Berenstein, an imprisoned Soviet refusenik who was blinded in one eye while in detention last December, has been transferred from a hospital to a labor camp, according to Berenstein’s wife, Fanya.
A friend outside the Soviet Union with whom Fanya Berenstein made contact earlier last week, told the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (UCSJ) that Soviet authorities had refused to tell the imprisoned refusenik’s wife where her busband had been sent.
Berenstein was arrested Nov. 12 while on a visit from his hometown Kiev to nearby Nevagrad Vilinski, where he is believed to have been lured by allegations of financial misdeeds that had been made against his aunt. Charged with resisting arrest, he was sentenced on Dec. 10 to four years imprisonment. While in prison, Berenstein was reportedly attacked with broken glass by two cellmates.
According to the UCSJ, Fanya Berenstein reported her husband had been taken from a hospital to a labor camp despite the loss of 99.4 percent of his vision. She appealed for world community support in urging the Soviet government to grant her husband amnesty.
Meanwhile, a number of Jews, including two visiting rabbis from New York, were detained for interrogation in the Soviet Union last week, according to the UCSJ. These interrogations, the UCSJ reported, have taken place since the death of Soviet leader Konstantin Chernenko.
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