French Jewish writer and philosopher Alain Finkielkraut and a French journalist are being detained at their Kiev hotel by the Soviet police and questioned for allegedly “subversive” activities.
Finkielkraut, 35, and Dominique Nora who works for the French daily, Liberation, have been under house arrest since last Sunday. The Russians “accuse” them of having met a Jewish refusenik and of having given him unspecified subversive written material.
Finkielkraut managed to contact today the French Embassy in Moscow. He said that Nora and he himself were questioned for several hours and are “accused” of “belonging to an international Zionist organization.”
Finkielkraut said the interrogators threatened them with a possible three-year prison sentence or an immediate expulsion. Both Nora and Finkielkraut arrived in the Soviet Union with tourist visas which expire next week.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman in Paris said the French Embassy in Mascow has contacted the Soviet authorities and is doing all it can on their behalf.
Finkielkraut is the author of half a dozen books, all on Jewish subjects. One, “The Imaginary Jew,” was highly praised by the critics and also become a best seller, Finkielkraut, who has also written several philosophical essays, is a prominent figure in French intellectual circles and has also played an active role in the community.
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