Soviet authorities have apparently decided to call off a planned show trial that reportedly would have involved some 100 Jews in Minsk accused of establishing a “Zionist underground” there. According to Jewish sources in the USSR, reached by telephone today, Gedaliya Kipnis, who spent five months in jail pending the trial, has been released.
The other Jews had been undergoing questioning for some time but none had been detained. The sources said that Yefim Davidovitz, a former Red Army officer who has been awaiting trial in Minsk on charges of Zionist and anti-Soviet activities, has been informed by the authorities that they have decided to drop the case.
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