Netherlands authorities are considering a request for political asylum from Dr. Mikhail Stern, the Soviet Jewish physician from Vinnitza, Ukraine, who was released from prison last month after serving three years of an eight-year sentence for alleged unethical practices. Stern arrived in Holland on April 21 to recuperate from an illness contracted in prison and was granted a three-month residence permit.
His case aroused a storm of protest from medical and scientific circles throughout the world which was credited with prompting the Soviet authorities to release him. His arrest and trial in 1974 on obviously false charges were apparently a form of retaliation for the fact that his sons, Victor and August, had applied for exit visas to go to Israel and Stern gave his permission as required by Soviet regulations.
August presently lives in Israel with his wife and two children. Victor is working at the University of Amsterdam. When he arrived here, Stern told reporters that he was still undecided in which country to make his permanent home. He said the matter would be settled by a family council.
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