A hunger-striking Leningrad refusenik has been put in a mental hospital and a Central Asian rabbi arrested, according to the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry,(SSSJ) and Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (UCSJ).
Nadezhda Fradkova, 36, of Leningrad, who for six years has sought to emigrate to Israel, began a protest hunger strike on December 23. On January 3, she was forcibly taken from her home to Psychiatric Hospital 9. Moscow activists appealed to the authorities to save her health by granting her emigration.
During her strike, she hod difficulty breathing and felt very weak. Fradkova had also fasted for over 40 days beginning last March in an unsuccessful attempt to gain an exit visa. Then police ended her action with forced feeding.
The SSSJ and UCSJ also reported that Central Asian rabbi Moshe Abramov has been arrested for unauthorized teaching of religion and “malicious hooliganism”. No other details are immediately available.
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