Naftali Hertz Kahn, a noted Yiddish writer in Poland, will go on trial in Poland tomorrow on charges of “calumny against the Soviet Union,” the newspaper Le Monde reported today.
Mr. Kahn was arrested almost a year ago when he returned to Poland from Rumania, and was at first charged, at the request of Soviet Union authorities, with “treason and espionage.” However, Poland has rejected the USSR’s request to extradite him, and is now going to try him on the lesser, but still serious, charge of “calumny.”
According to Le Monde, there seems to be no connection between the Kahn case and the recent arrests of leading Russian Jews in the Soviet Union. The newspaper stated that Mr. Kahn is in poor health, and expressed the hope that the Polish court would show him clemency.
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