The death sentence imposed on Mikhail Leviev in Moscow a week ago has been stayed temporarily pending a reopening of his case, Jewish sources in the Soviet Union reported today. Leviev, who once managed a large government store in Moscow, was convicted of alleged “economic crimes.” He had applied for a visa to emigrate to Israel.
The sources said that Leviev’s wife, Sophia, received a reply from President Nikolai Podgorny of the Supreme Soviet to whom she had appealed for clemency for her husband. Podgorny wrote that in response to her appeal, Leviev’s case would be reopened and a new investigation will be ordered. This means in effect that the death sentence is stayed and Leviev will be moved out of the condemned bloc in prison, the sources said.
SOVIETS WILL RESIST FOREIGN PRESSURES
Jewish sources in the Soviet Union reported today that several Jewish activists were informed by the KGB that Soviet emigration policies will not be influenced by foreign pressures. The activists, including Vladimir Slepak, Mikhail Polotsk and Yuli Koshorovsky, were summoned to KGB headquarters in Moscow for “clarification” of last week’s Tass statement denying linkage between U.S. trade and Soviet emigration practices, the sources reported.
They said the activists were told that the USSR had no intention of yielding to foreign pressures on emigration and that “In the future, as in the past, all decisions concerning emigration will be made by the USSR without any consideration of pressures from abroad.” The activists were not warned this time to keep the contents of the interview secret, indicating that the KGB wants them to convey its message to all Jews who have applied for emigration visas or who are thinking of applying for them.
The sources noted that this was the first time Jewish activists have been approached by an official Soviet agency as representatives of all Soviet Jews, a development they consider to be significant.
Jewish sources reported today that Mark Nashpitz, a 30-year-old Jewish dentist, was offered an exit visa to join his mother in Israel if he agreed to tour Jewish communities all over the world to denounce the Jewish activist movement in the USSR. Nashpitz refused, the sources said.
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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.
