A petition urging the release of Prisoner of Conscience Ida Nudel, a leading human rights activist in the Soviet Union, was signed by over 120 state legislators who were attending the National Association of State Legislators Conference here last week. The legislators petitioned the Soviet government to “please release Ida Nudel and allow her to emigrate to Israel.” Their petition will be delivered to Soviet Embassy officials in Washington.
Nudel was refused a visa to emigrate in 1971. Since her refusal she has waged a campaign on behalf of Soviet POCs, risking her health and safety to help them. The prisoners consider Nudel to be their “Guardian Angel.” In June 1978, she was arrested, charged with “malicious hooliganism, and sentenced to four years in exile. Nudel is now forced to live as the only woman in a men’s hostel in the remote Siberian swamps.
“The legislators who have petitioned for Ida Nudel’s release have joined many other prominent citizens who are lending their names, efforts, and energies to an on-going program to secure Nudel’s release,” said Lynn Singer, vice president of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews. Other groups seeking amnesty for Nudel are “Women for Ida Nudel” which includes San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein, and Reps. Patricia Schroeder (D.Colo.) and Elizabeth Holtzman (D.NY); and “Colleagues of Ida Nudel,” a group of working economists including Nobel Laureates Paul A. Samuelson and Milton Friedman, the Union of Councils reported.
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