About 50 Soviet secret police forcefully broke up a demonstration in Moscow Thursday for the release of Dr. Iosif Begun and detained seven of the demonstrators, including Begun’s wife Inna, the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry reported here.
Members of the foreign press were shoved and kicked according to eyewitness reports, SSSJ said.
Thursday’s demonstration was the fourth this week for Begun, who is reported to be the only remaining political prisoner in Chistopol prison. Although Soviet officials have said 140 political prisoners were released in the past week, only releases of some 40 have been confirmed, SSSJ said.
Soviet officials have apparently made Begun’s release contingent on his signing an agreement not to continue teaching Hebrew, which Begun has refused to do.
Begun has sought to emigrate to Israel since 1971. He was sentenced in 1983 to seven years in labor camps and five years in internal exile for “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda” for teaching Hebrew.
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