Uncle of Three Jews Sentenced in Leningrad Appeals for Justices

Abraham Zalmanson, the uncle of three of the Jewish prisoners sentenced in Leningrad, appealed here today “to the British, the Soviet Embassy and the British Communist Party for a just answer to the unfounded accusations against my relatives.” He spoke at a press conference after his attempts to present his case were rebuffed at the Soviet Embassy, where he tried to submit a petition. Zalmanson, who left Riga in 1959 and is now a film projectionist in Tel Aviv, said he was shocked by the rebuff. “I was wounded three times serving in the Red Army, and this is the way they treat me now,” he said. He offered thanks to “the people of Britain and the rest of the world for raising their voices against the death sentences imposed in Leningrad. His nephew Lt. Wolf Zalmanson was sentenced in Leningrad to 10 years in prison, his niece Silva Zalmanson Kuznetsov to 10 years and his nephew Isak Zalmanson to eight years. (Mrs. Kuznetsov’s husband, Edvard, received a death sentence that was later commuted to life imprisonment.) Abraham Zalmanson and several officials of the World Union of Jewish Students, which sponsored today’s press conference, said they had tried to present his case today to a diplomat at the Soviet Embassy, but that the diplomat called the police.

“I have never seen anyone who was so annoyed and hostile,” said WUJS representative Colin Shindler of the Soviet official. “He was really red in the face with rage.” Shindler added that before the press conference he telephoned John Gollan, secretary general of the British Communist Party, to ask him to raise the issue of Soviet Jewish rights before the Soviet Communist Party congress next week. “As soon as I mentioned the Universities Committee for Soviet Jewry, he put the phone down.” Shindler said. The WUJS official also reported that the nine Jews sentenced at Leningrad had been split into two groups, some being held in that city and some being sent to Siberian labor camps. Zalmanson read from letters sent him by his niece Silva, one of them disclosing that the director of the factory she worked in had refused to give her a character reference that would have enabled her to leave the country before the date of the alleged hijacking attempt. Zalmanson said he has written to Prime Minister Edward Heath for an appointment to ask him to intervene on behalf of the convicted Jews.

The text of the petition to the Soviet Communist Party by 18 relatives of arrested and convicted Jews who were refused admittance to the Central Committee building last week was made available here today. They wrote, in part: “Exactly nine months ago, on June 15 (1970), our sons, friends and husbands were arrested in Leningrad. Today it is exactly nine months since our sorrow and theirs began. We are convinced that innocent people are kept under guard..The fact that no trial has been conducted in the space of nine months means that it has become clear to all that there is nothing to try these people for. In such a case the accused should be released immediately. We cannot imagine that the highest organs of authority are deliberately delaying the trial in order to hold it after the 24th congress of the CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union).” The writers charged that their relatives had been imprisoned for seeking to make use of “the lawful right” to migrate to Israel. “We hope that you will deal with our request with understanding and will not force us to take extreme measures out of desperation,” they concluded, adding that they had come to Moscow specifically to pursue their cause “and we shall have enough patience to wait as long as it will prove necessary to attain our aim.”