The National Conference on Soviet Jewry has learned that the appeal of Soviet Jewish activist Vladimir Slepak has been rejected by Soviet authorities. Slepak was sentenced last month to five years internal exile for “malicious hooliganism.”
Meanwhile, Slepak’s wife, Mariya, who was charged with the same offense, has been told she will go on trial Wednesday. The couple were arrested in May after they hung a banner from their balcony asking to be allowed to join their son in Israel.
In another development the wife of imprisoned Moscow refusenik losif Begun has written to the international Olympic Committee president Lord Killanin charging that there is a direct link between her husband’s arrest and Soviet efforts to rid Moscow of Jewish activists for the 1980 Olympic Games.
According to the Student Struggle for Soviets Jewry and the Union of Councils for Soviets Jews, Dr. Alla Begun said her husband was sentenced June 28 for “violating the internal passport regulations” when he sought to rejoin his family in Moscow after returning from exile in Siberia. She charged her husband was arrested as preparation for the Olympic games.
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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.
