A “Freedom Squad” of prominent physicians, led by New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Lowell E, Bellin, marched to the Soviet UN Mission this morning to protest the eight-year prison sentence imposed on Dr, Mikhail Stern, a Jewish physician in Vinnitsa convicted of alleged bribery and swindling his patients. The delegation demanded a meeting with the Russian UN Ambassador Jacob Malik. He refused to see them.
Dr. Bellin is honorary chairman of the New York Medical Committee on Soviet Jewry, an affiliate of the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry of which Kings County District Attorney Eugene Gold is chairman. The “Freedom Squads” are groups of concerned citizens who react to instances of Soviet persecution of Jews. There are 12 such groups in New York City.
At the Soviet Mission today, the doctors denounced the authorities in Vinnitsa, Ukraine, for “railroading” Dr, Stern only a few days before President Ford signed the Trade Reform Bill granting American trade benefits to the Soviet Union. Dr, Bellin handed a Mission official a 12-square foot “open letter” from the Medical Committee on Soviet Jewry protesting the cruel treatment to which Dr, Stern was subjected from the time of his arrest last May until his trial in December and his subsequent sentence to eight years at hard labor.
The charges against Dr. Stern were attributed to the fact that he and his sons, August and Viktor had applied for visas to emigrate to Israel. The two brothers have since been branded “conspirators against the regime” for relaying information about their father’s trial to Western reporters, the Medical Committee reported. It also reported that 29 Jewish activists from Vinnitsa, Moscow, Minsk, Vilna, Riga and Odessa have appealed to doctors all over the world to protest the verdict against Stern.
LEVIEV’S DEATH SENTENCE STANDS
In a related development, it was learned today that the Soviet Supreme Court in Moscow has refused to reverse the death sentence imposed on Mikhail Leviev, a Moscow Jew charged with alleged economic crimes. The court’s refusal was related to reporters by Leviev’s son, Alexander. He said the ruling came last week and that a telegram from the family appealing for clemency was rejected yesterday.
Leviev is reportedly in Lefortovo jail in Moscow awaiting execution. He had been manager of a large government store in Moscow before applying for an exit visa to go to Israel. He was arrested in 1972. The Soviet trade union paper, Trud, published the first account of the case today, an indication that the death sentence may be carried out soon.
Trud claimed that illegal deals originating in the store had involved money and valuables worth more than $2 million and a large quantity of gold bars and gold coins. Nevertheless, when Leviev resigned from the store, he was given the usual official certificate stating that he had performed his duties satisfactorily.
(In Los Angeles, women held a day of fast today to elicit public support for clemency for Dr. Stern and Leviev. The fast was conducted on the steps of City Hall. Mayor Thomas Bradley and City Councilmen and public officials addressed the fasters and participated with them. Thirty-five women, members of the Jewish Federation-Council Women’s Conference, carried banners representing Soviet Jewish prisoners of conscience.)
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