Soviet Jewish refusenik Vladimir Lifshitz was convicted and sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison for anti-Soviet slander, according to the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews.
Lifshitz was arrested on January 8 on his way to work. He was charged with anti-Soviet slander, under Article 190-1 of the criminal code of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic. These charges were based on statements Lifshitz made in letters he wrote describing his current situation in the Soviet Union.
The letters, which Lifshitz admits he wrote, were illegally confiscated from the mail by Soviet officials, as well as copies of other personal correspondence seized from the Lifshitz apartment in Leningrad during a search carried out prior to his arrest.
Lifshitz was the first Soviet Jew arrested and tried since the Geneva summit last November. He has been repeatedly refused permission to emigrate since 1981 on grounds that it is “against the interests of the State.”
An electrical engineer and a mathematician, Lifshitz worked as head of the division of economic forecasting at the All-Union Scientific Research Institute for the jewelry industry in Leningrad until 1981, when he had to resign because of his application to emigrate to Israel.
According to reports, a criminal case was also opened against his wife Anna and Leningrad refusenik Semyon Borovinsky, for their refusal to give evidence at Lifshitz’s trial.
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