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Exit Visas Granted to Refuseniks

April 23, 1981
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After waiting for almost nine years for an exit visa, Grigory Goman, his wife Larissa, and their five-year-old daughter Geula have received permission to emigrate to Israel, it was reported here today. Goman, 45, of Leningrad, was subjected to constant police harassment since he first applied for a visa in 1972. A doctor of radiophysical engineering, he has not been able to work in his field since 1972.

Meanwhile, the life of Prisoner of Conscience Anatoly Shcharansky hangs in the balance. His wife, Avital, reported that his weight is now down to 91 pounds, he is going blind and is losing his memory. “The situation is now so grave that I feel he is going to die,” she told reporters during a visit to England several days ago. “He is only being given bread and soup” in the Soviet labor comp where he is serving a 15-year term.

In another development, Ida Nudel reported that the hut in which she lives in the remote Siberian village of Krivesheino, to which she was exiled in 1978, was searched by Soviet authorities after fellow activists visited her. One of the visitors, Dr. Isai Goldstein, was detained and interrogated and the tape of his conversation with Nudel was confiscated.

According to reports, Nudel has received 4000 registered letters from 19 countries since she was exiled after she was convicted on charges of hanging a banner from her Moscow apartment balcony demanding an exit visa to Israel. She said she has not been able to answer her correspondents because her hands are swollen from her deteriorated physical condition.

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