Moshe Abramov, 28, an observant Jew from Samarkand in Central Asia, has been arrested on charges of “hooliganism,” it was reported today by the National Conference on Soviet Jewry. He faces a possible sentence of one to five years.
Abramov, who was arrested December 19, is being held in the town of Katta-Kurgan, about 60 miles from Samarkand, according to the Conference. His arrest followed a dispute with local authorities when he was asked to withdraw a request to emigrate to Israel which he submitted in 1980. He refused to do so.
A former student at the Moscow Synagogue’s “yeshiva,” he was working as a ritual slaughterer in Samarkand at the time of his arrest, the Conference said.
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