Aleksandr Kholmiansky of Moscow, a 32-year-old computer scientist who taught Hebrew, a proscribed activity in the Soviet Union, was sentenced to 18 months in a labor camp by a court in Voru, Estonia last Friday on charges of “hooliganism.”
According to organizations here which monitor the treatment of Jews in the USSR, Kholmiansky was also fined 100 Rubles for “trampling on flowers.” Another source said the fine was for “tampering” with a mail box. When Kholmiansky was arrested in Tallin, Estonia, last July, he was charged with possession of a weapon and ammunition. But that charge was dropped, the sources said.
The sentence was considered “relatively mild” by Kholmiansky’s family and friends, the sources said, indicating that the Soviet authorities recognized the weakness of their case against the Jewish activist and their awareness of the intense interest in his fate in Western countries.
Kholmiansky’s arrest nearly eight months ago was mentioned in a report released by the State Department last week as marking the beginning of the latest “campaign of arrests and intimidation targeted at the activist Jewish community in the Soviet Union by Soviet authorities.”
The sentencing in Voru took place several days after the State Department released its report. The time Kholmiansky spent in confinement since his arrest was deducted from the sentence, as allowed by Soviet law.
Sources in Moscow reported that Kholmiansky was highly regarded as a Hebrew teacher and had about 10 students from five cities at the time of arrest.
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