Jacob Birnbaum, national director of Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, reported here today that ominous reports of a major conspiracy trial against Vladimir Slepak and Victor Polsky, two Russian Jewish activists, have reached him from the Soviet Union.
At the same time, Birnbaum reported that the trial of Isaac Skolnik, a Jewish activist from Novosibirsk, is currently being held in Novosibirsk. Skolnik, who is an engineer, is being accused of defaming the Soviet Union, under Article 187 of the penal code, according to Birnbaum. He reported that witnesses are still being brought in by the prosecution.
The conspiracy trial against Slepak and Polsky may be related to the upcoming trial in Moscow of Lazar Lubarsky of Rostov, according to Birnbaum. Lubarsky is being charged with spreading false information about the Soviet Union under Article 193 of the Soviet penal code. Birnbaum said that over 50 people have been called by the KGB for interrogation in connection with the Lubarsky trial.
According to Birnbaum, Slepak’s name was mentioned in Pravda, the organ of the Soviet Communist Party, in connection with the trial of Ilia Glezer, who was convicted last week to three years in a forced labor camp. Earlier this year, Slepak had resisted a government appointed job at manual labor on the grounds that he was not physically fit. The government later found him a different job.
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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.
