The wife of Mikhail Leviev, a Moscow Jew under sentence of death, said today that she has just filed an appeal for clemency to President Nikolai Podgorny of the Supreme Soviet and begged people throughout the world to support her plea with appeals of their own to the Soviet authorities, “before it is too late,” It has now been confirmed that the Soviet Supreme Court has upheld Leviev’s death sentence.
The message of desperation was delivered by Mrs, Sofia Leviev in a telephone call from Moscow this afternoon to Mrs, Genya N, Intrator, vice-chairman of the Canadian Committee for Soviet Jewry in Toronto who conveyed it to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Mrs. Leviev said that appeals for clemency should be sent to Olga Gregoryevna Kolchina, chairwoman of the Supreme Soviet of the Federation of Russian Socialist Republics (RSSSR) and to President Podgorny who is the authority of last resort, She explained, according to Mrs. Intrator, that under Soviet law death sentences cannot be carried out until appeals for clemency are denied, “but that can happen very quickly.”
Mikhail Leviev, who once managed a large government store in Moscow, was accused of alleged economic crimes and was sentenced to death by the Soviet Supreme Court last Dec, 8, On Tues day, April 22, his lawyer was informed that his appeals against the verdict had been dented, Mrs, Leviev told Mrs. Intrator today, She said that her husband refuses to appeal for clemency on his own behalf because, he says, “I am not guilty of what I am sentenced for, I will not appeal for clemency, I should be given a just trial.”
Mrs. Leviev has not been permitted to visit her husband in prison to beg him to ask for clemency “for mine and my children’s sake,” She told Mrs, Intrator: “I saw my husband last one month ago for a half hour. At that time we were all still hopeful and I was giving him hope, Since then, all my petitions to see him were denied, This morning I tried to see Podgorny, chairman of the Supreme Soviet, or anybody else in authority to beg for my husband’s life, I was not allowed to see anybody, Our lawyer has been asking my husband to petition for clemency, My husband refuses.”
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