Several hundred New Yorkers marched to the Soviet Mission to the United Nations today to protest the imminent trial of Soviet-Jewish activist Anatoly Shcharansky and the refusal by Soviet authorities to allow him to be represented by an attorney of his choice. Shcharansky has been charged with treason which carries a possible death sentence. Allegations in the Soviet press that Shcharansky had worked for the CIA were specifically denied by President Carter last July.
The march was organized by the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry (GNYCSJ) as an emergency response to the latest developments in the Shcharansky case. The Jewish activist, who first applied for an emigration permit in April, 1972, was arrested in Moscow last March 15 and held incommunicado since then. His mother, Mrs. Ida Milgrom, was informed Thursday that the KGB (secret police) has appointed a defense lawyer. The KGB, however, refused to reveal the lawyer’s name.
The move indicated that the preliminary investigation is over and that Shcharansky will be brought to trial within a month. Under Soviet law, trial must take place within 28 days of the end of the preliminary investigation.
The protest march followed an emergency rally at the Minskoff Cultural Center where the speakers included several present and former New York City officials, Shcharansky’s brother-in-law, Mikhail Stiglitz and Mervin Riseman, associate chairman of the GNYCSJ, who presided. Gov. Hugh Carey, of New York, expressed “great shock and dismay” over the developments in a statement read at the rally. “Citizens of New York will not remain silent but will join the efforts of men and women of good will throughout the world and pledge to continue to exert every effort to obtain Shcharansky’s freedom,” Carey’s statement said.
The marchers carried a letter addressed to the Soviet Ambassador to the UN, Oleg Troyanovsky, protesting the denial of Shcharansky’s right to select his own defense counsel. Over 140 Moscow lawyers turned down Mrs. Milgrom’s pleas that they represent her son. The Shcharansky family had asked that a French lawyer, Roland Rappaport, be allowed to act as co-counsel but the Soviet authorities rejected their request. The letter was signed by Riesman and by Dr. Haskel Lookstein, vice-chairman of the GNYCSJ. It was not immediately known whether the Soviet envoy received the letter.
Meanwhile, Riesman dismissed rumors that Shcharansky might be exchanged for a political prisoner in another country. “This report could be just a ruse aimed at confusing all those in the West who care about Shcharansky’s fate,” he said. (See related story.)
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