Nine Soviet Jewry activists, including a Soviet Jewish emigre who became a naturalized U.S. citizen last fall, were found guilty of conducting an illegal demonstration in front of the Soviet Embassy here.
But for the first time since the District of Columbia court began trying the groups of activists arrested at seven Soviet Jewry demonstrations since last May, the judge admitted a lengthy written account of what the proposed witnesses would have said in their testimony about the persecution of Jews in the Soviet Union.
In an unprecedented move in the Soviet Jewry protest hearings, the judge also agreed to postpone the probation sentences of the defendants pending appeal.
Most of the nine convicted last Thursday were attending a conference of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews when they were arrested at a rally in front of the Soviet Embassy last October. One hundred and thirty-two people have been arrested in Soviet Jewry demonstrations at the Embassy since last spring for violating a local statute that bans demonstrations within 500 feet of an Embassy.
Like all but one of over 50 activists convicted to date — including primarily rabbis, but also a Lutheran minister, cantors and Jewish lay leaders — Thursday’s group was given a 15–day suspended sentence, six months unsupervised probation and a $50 fine. Last month, five of the rabbis decided to go to jail rather than accept the probation sentence, as a way of dramatizing the Soviet Jewry issue. They were released after twelve days, three days short of their actual sentence.
CITES SEVERITY OF JEWISH SITUATION IN THE USSR
The attorney for the group, Seth Waxman, attempted, as did those representing the earlier groups, to plead the case by demonstrating that persecution of Jews in the Soviet Union is so severe and their situation consequently so critical that the demonstration was perceived by the activists as necessary to save Russian Jews from further harm. In a lengthy statement, he cited State Department reports on Soviet rights violations and anti-Semitism.
Although the Judge, Joseph Hannon, refused to hear the proposed defense and consequently ruled out testimony from witnesses about Soviet persecution of Jews, he accepted a written account of what the witnesses would have said had they been allowed to testify.
The proposed witnesses included recent Soviet emigre Sergey Broude, who was among those convicted.
His arrest last October occurred four days after he became a naturalized American citizen. Broude, a physicist, was a Hebrew teacher in the Soviet Union and principal of a secret Hebrew school. He has lived in Boston since he was allowed to emigrate five years ago.
One of those convicted Thursday, Rusty Frank, a Soviet Jewry activist in San Francisco, considered going to prison rather than accept the probation sentence. But in consultations with Waxman, Hannon urged her not to force him to hand down a jail sentence, which he said he would postpone in any case.
In deciding to postpone the probation sentence, Hannon said that although he could not prophesy what the outcome of the group’s appeal would be, the statement submitted by Waxman was “indeed a remark able record,” and he suggested that the case might have sufficient merit to win on appeal.
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