Pinhas Pinkhasov, a Jewish carpenter from Derbent, has been released after serving only two years of a five-year sentence for economic crimes, the National Conference on Soviet Jewry reported today. Pinkhasov was arrested in September, 1973 and tried in November 1973 for overcharging by a few kopecks for a shelf he made for a customer.
The NCSJ said he was the only person in his town to apply for an exit visa to Israel. His wife and six children were allowed to leave for Israel after his arrest. Pinkhasov’s early release is considered rare and no immediate explanation for this was available.
In another development the NOSJ reported that Soviet police and KGB interrupted Jewish activists yesterday when they tried to speak at a commemoration ceremony for Jews murdered by the Nazis in the Rumbull forest outside Riga. About 40 Jews attended the ceremony at Rumbull. The NCSJ also said that two activists. Valery Kaminsky and one surnamed Gorodin were not permitted by the KGB to leave their homes for the ceremony.
The NCSJ also reported that Gessia Penson, the mother of “Prisoner of Conscience” Boris Penson, who was arrested in Moscow last month for demonstrating, is still being detained.
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.
