Viktor Brailovsky, who was arrested last November on charges of “defaming the Soviet state and public order,” has been transferred from Moscow’s Butyrka Prison to the notorious Lefortovo Prison where Anatoly Shcharansky was held incommunicado for 14 months, it was reported here today by Burton Levinson, chairman of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry.
Brailovsky, a leading activist of the Jewish emigration movement and editor of the journal, “Jews in the USSR,” was reported last month to be seriously ill by his wife, Irina. She said then that the interrogration of Brailovsky had been temporarily suspended because of his medical condition. Efforts to ascertain the nature of his illness have been unsuccessful.
Brailovsky has not been seen by his wife nor have formal charges been leveled against him, Levinson said. He noted that the transfer may mean that Soviet authorities intend to continue their investigation of the case.
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