A group of prominent publishers, journalists and lawyers today called upon Argentine President Jorge Videla to release Jacobo Timerman from house arrest and allow him to visit the United States as a guest of the Columbia School of Journalism.
Timerman, a distinguished journalist and former editor of la Opinion, was arrested in April 1977, abused and tortured, and, although cleared of any wrongdoing by the investigatory military court and the civilian Supreme Court of Justice, has been held under house arrest since that time, despite his repeated requests to allowed to join his wife and children in Israel.
Osborn Elliott, Dean of the Columbia School of Journalism, announced today that the prestigious institution which he heads had invited Timerman on March 5 to come to the United States as a guest lecturer and that Timerman, through relatives, had indicated his wish to accept the invitation.
“We did not make our invitation public right away, ” Elliott explained, “because we wished to give the Argentine authorities a chance to reconsider the case and to use our invitation as a face-saving way to release Mr. Timerman whose continued detention has made them the target of a world-wide protest. We were given reason to believe that Mr. Timerman might be released, but weeks have gone by with no such action.”
Judge Marvin Frankel, who visited Argentina at the beginning of April as a member of a New York City Bar Association mission sent to investigate the situation of lawyers in Argentina, confirmed Elliott’s comments. He was at first told by Argentine authorities that he would be permitted to visit with Timerman and then abruptly informed that the visit could not be arranged. “I waited for five hours in my room on the last night of our visit, “Frankel said, “while aides to the President said they were trying in vain to reach the Minister of the Interior for the necessary clearance.”
TIMERMAN MAY GO ON HUNGER STRIKE
Lawrence Hughes, president of William Morrow Publishers and chairman of the International Freedom to Publish Committee of the Association of American Publishers, said today that his committee has received reports that Timerman is in a state of extreme despondency and may be planning a hunger strike to call attention to his plight.
The committee, which has long been active in advocating Timerman’s release, expressed hopes that “pressure from a variety of professional groups in the U.S. might persuade the Argentine authorities that the growing attention to Timerman’s case will not subside, and that the government would be better off letting him go than continuing to prolong a situation which brings them nothing but embarrassment and shame.”
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