Vladimir Masarik of Moscow, a long-time refusenik, was arrested last week on a charge of “drug possession.” He was the second refusenik within a week to be arrested by Soviet authorities. Bezalel Shalolashvili of Tbilisi, 22, was charged with “draft evasion.” According to the Coalition to Free Soviet Jews, Magarik, 52, a computer programmer, first applied for a visa to emigrate in 1977.
Alan Pesky, Coalition chairman, said that the two arrests ended a two-month lull in the imprisonment of refuse nils. The charges against the two men, he said, are fabrications, and the only crime these men have committed is applying for visas to Israel. Masarik has asserted that the drugs were planted on him. Shalolashvili says he never received the draft notice that the authorities claim was sent to him.
“The arrests of Magarik and Shalolashvili unfortunately prove true Anatoly Shcharansky’s prediction that following his release there would be increased internal repression,” Pesky said. “The Soviets frequently follow a positive gesture with a negative one.” He referred to an incident in January when the Soviets gave an exit visa to refusenik Yakov Gorodetsky on the same day they arrested his friend, Vladimir Lifshitz.
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