Eight Minsk Jewish activists have gone on a three-day hunger strike to protest the exile sentence given Mark Nashpitz and Boris Tsitlionok, Mrs. Genya Intrator, national vice-president of the Canadian Committee for Soviet Jewry, said today. Mrs. Intrator, who is vacationing here, said she called the Minsk group last night and learned that because of the disruption of the activists’ telephones they had not learned of the sentencing Monday until yesterday morning.
The Minsk activists, led by Col. Lev Ovsishcher, also told her that similar hunger strikes are being conducted by Jews in Moscow, Leningrad, Odessa, Kiev, Vilna, Kishinev and possibly other cities. Some 100 Jews are believed to be involved in the hunger strikes.
Mrs. Intrator said that after it was learned on March 27 that the trial of the two men would be held March 31, John Roberts, the Liberal MP from her Toronto Riding, applied for an emergency visa to attend the trial as an observer. But he was told the visa would take 10 days so he cancelled his trip since he would not have been able to arrive before the trial.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
