The Israel Communist Party (Rakah) newspaper, Kol Ha’am, published an interview today with N.A. Yermakov, president of the three-man court in Leningrad currently trying nine Jews and two non-Jewish for allegedly plotting to hijack a Soviet airliner last June. Yermakov, defending the trial, maintained that the accused were not being tried because of their religion or their wish to emigrate to Israel but because they tried to hijack a plane. He said that the chief defendant, Maj. Mark Dymshitz, a former military pilot, forced his wife and two teen-age daughters to Join him in the plot against their will and that they were subsequently released from Jail. According to reliable reports from Leningrad, the chief prosecutor, R. Rudenko, has demanded the death penalty for Dymshitz and one other defendant, Edvard Kuznetzov.
Yermakov maintained the interview that all of the accused admitted that they had published and distributed Zionist material. He charged that Dymshitz tried to turn the proceedings into a political trial by claiming that Jews are oppressed in Russia. Yermakov attempted to refute that charge with statistics showing that “the number of Jews in all professions is no less than that of other Soviet nationals.” He also dismissed an alleged claim by Dymshitz that despite his military combat record he was refused employment as a civilian pilot after World War II because he is a Jew. According to Yermakov military pilots cannot become civilian pilots in Russia unless they take a special course which Dymshitz did not take. He claimed that many Russian pilots are in the same situation.
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