Soviet Jewish Prisoner of Conscience Aleksandr Kholmiansky is in the 33rd day of a hunger strike, the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry reported today. While visiting with prison officials in Tallinn, Kholmiansky’s mother learned that her son has been on a hunger strike since September 13 and is being forcefed within the prison hospital. According to his mother, Kholmiansky undertook the hunger strike to protest his groundless imprisonment.
Kholmiansky, a Moscow refusenik who applied to emigrate in 1978, was arrested on July 25 and charged with “hooliganism.” He has been held since then while Soviet authorities have attempted to build a case against him, the Conference said. According to Jewish activists in the Soviet Union, Kholmiansky is being accused of organizing a “national Hebrew study group,” although no such group exists. The prosecutor now also claims to have “found” a gun and ammunition in Kholmiansky’s apartment. Kholmiansky is expected to go on trial in Tallinn on October 25.
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