Mark Abir, left-wing labor Zionist youth leader in Rumania who was sentenced a year ago to 20 years’ imprisonment, has been released by Rumanian authorities, according to information received here today by the World Jewish Congress.
Mr. Abir, who had been for a time a clerk in the Israel legation in Bucharest, was arrested with other Rumanian Zionist leaders in 1949. He was brought to trial only last year, along with 20 other former leaders of the Hashomer Hatzair group, on charges of organizing illegal emigration of Jews from Rumania and maintaining contact with the Israel legation.
The Bucharest Military Court sentenced Mr. Abir to 20 years’ imprisonment, but he appealed to the Supreme Military Court, which ordered a new trial. As a result of the new trial, the court at Bucharest again found him guilty, and sentenced him to a prison term of four years, but ordered him released immediately since he had already been detained for almost six years.
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