Prisoner of Conscience Anatoly Shcharansky has been transferred further away from his family to a criminal prison in the Tatar Republic, according to information received by the National Conference on Soviet Jewry. Shcharansky was sentenced last July to 13 years in prison for “treason, espionage and anti-Soviet agitation” and had been sent to the infamous Vladimir prison, about 100 miles east of Moscow. He has now been transferred to a criminal prison in Chistopol, about 500 miles east of Moscow. Vladimir had housed both criminal and political prisoners. The move will make it much more difficult for Shcharansky’s family and friends to visit him. Shcharansky’s trial drew worldwide condemnation for its perversion of the Soviet criminal justice system. President Carter and hundreds of other American officials had proclaimed their belief in Shcharansky’s innocence.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
