Soviet Jewry Committee Calls for Release of Angela Davis, Ruth Aleksandrovich

The Universities Committee for Soviet Jewry is linking the impending trial of Ruth Aleksandrovich in Riga with that of Angela Davis, a professor of psychology at the University of California. The group has distributed posters demanding, “U.S.A. Free Angela Davis-USSR Free Ruth Aleksandrovich.” A committee spokesman said the similarity between the two cases derived from the fact that both young women were “involved in dramas arising out of the tragic and confused times we live in.” Miss Davis, a black militant and self-proclaimed Marxist-Leninist, has been indicted for complicity in a court room kidnap attempt which resulted in the killing of a judge. Miss Aleksandrovich, a 24-year-old nurse, has been in prison since last October but has not been informed of the charges against her or when her trial would begin. The spokesman said that while Miss Davis has been allowed to speak and write from jail, Ruth Aleksandrovich has been held incommunicado since her arrest, has no defense counsel and only her KGB (secret police) jailers have access to the documents on her case. While Miss Davis’ trial will be held in full view of American and world opinion, Miss Aleksandrovich “may never be able to speak in her defense unless world public opinion raises its voice against this inhumanity as it has spoken up in the case of Angela Davis,” the committee spokesman said.