Simon Shnirman, a 25-year-old Soviet Jew and former Prisoner of Conscience, was sentenced on February 15 to three years in a labor camp on draft evasion, it was reported by the National Conference on Soviet Jewry. The sentence followed his arrest on January 12.
Shnirman has already served two-and-a-half years at hard labor under similar charges. During that time, he was singled out by camp authorities for special punishment: non-delivery of mail and food parcels and denial of visits from his mother. He was released on November 29, 1980.
He first applied to emigrate in 1977 and was denied permission on the pretext that “he did not work long enough to pay for money invested by the State in his studies.” As a bachelor and only son, the law stipulates that he is exempt from the draft.
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