Burton Levinson, chairman of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry (NCSJ), sent a telegram yesterday to decretory of State Edmund Muskie requesting the State Department to seek clarification from the Soviet government on the physical health of Prisoner of Conscience Anatoly Shcharansky. The appeal followed reports that Shcharonsky suffered a serious fall last month and is in a prison hospital.
Expressing the apprehension of the NCSJ, Levinson said, “Concern is mounting over the physical health and security of Anatoly Shcharansky based on report from his mother. We urge that all available channels be utilized to clarify negative reports of his health and to insure his well-being.”
According to regent newspaper reports Shcharansky had written so his mother. Ida Milgrom, that he suffered a fall Sept. 23 that left him unconscious. As a result of the injury, he was experiencing back and stomach pains and was receiving antibiotics in the prison hospital.
REPORTS THAT SHCHARANSKY COLLAPSED
But the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry said that reports from the Soviet Union which reached the International Committee for Anatoly Shcharansky, headed by Rep. Robert Drinan (D.Mass.), said that Shcharansky had suddenly collapsed while at work in the Perm labor camp and was taken to the camp’s hospital, a move usually reserved only for inmates who are quite ill.
At the time of his collapse, the SSSJ said, Shcharansky had also been notified that the visit of his mother and brother scheduled for December was cancelled, possibly in retaliation to strong letter he had sent to President Leonid Erezinev complaining about the severe conditions in the camp.
The SSSJ also said that a film, “Lies and Hatred, ” which attacked Shcharansky and his wife Avital, was shown on Soviet television last Saturday night.
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.
