Jews Marking Fourth Anniversary of Leningrad Trial Arrested, Harassed

Jews in Leningrad and Moscow marking the fourth anniversary of the first Leningrad hijack trial have been arrested in the past few days or followed and harassed by KGB agents, it was learned here from telephone conversations with Jewish sources in the Soviet Union today. According to the sources an unspecified number of Jews were detained when they sought to join 45 Jews in Moscow protesting the continued imprisonment of Jewish activists convicted at the Leningrad trials.

The 45 in Moscow began a two-day hunger strike on the anniversary of the trial which marked the beginning of an open campaign by Soviet authorities against Jews seeking visas to emigrate to Israel. They managed to deliver a petition addressed to President Nikolai Podgorny at the headquarters of the Supreme Soviet which was handed over to an official. It was signed by 300 Jews from 15 Soviet cities and towns, the sources said, and called for the release of all Jews imprisoned for alleged Zionist activities and an end to the harassment of visa applicants.

(Mrs. Inez Weismann, president of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews, reported in New York yesterday that the Council had learned of new arrests and harassments of Jews in Leningrad in connection with the trial anniversary. She said that a number of activists were arrested as they were about to leave Leningrad to join the protestors in Moscow. They included Igeni Stachnovich who was sentenced to 15 days in jail and Yosef Blich, who did not return from work and is assumed to have been arrested. Another Jewish activist. Lev Zhegun, was hospitalized after he was allegedly poisoned in a Leningrad coffee house, Mrs. Weismann reported. She said Leningrad activists feared further arrests. They are being tailed by KGB men on foot and in cars, she reported.)