Isaac Shkolnik, a 37-year-old Jewish mechanic in Vinnitsa, Ukraine, was sentenced to ten years imprisonment today on charges of treason and anti-Soviet propaganda, the National Conference on Soviet Jewry reported. The sentence was the harshest since the 1970 Leningrad hijack trials.
Shkolnik, who had applied for a visa to emigrate to Israel, went on trial March 29 in a closed courtroom set up in a local brick factory. The trial was conducted entirely in camera. A detachment of Red Army troops was dispatched to guard the courtroom along with local police. Shkolnik’s wife and other relatives and friends were barred from the proceedings.
According to information reported by the NCSJ, Shkolnik’s defense attorney warned him to confess to the charges or otherwise he would be sentenced to death. Shkolnik was originally accused of spying for Britain. Shortly before his trial opened the charge was changed to spying for Israel.
MAASS SAYS NO CHANGE IN REPRESSIVE POLICIES
Commenting on the Shkolnik trial today, Richard Maass, chairman of the NCSJ said “the outcome of the case establishes a new pattern of arrest, trial and conviction of Jews in the USSR who have committed no offense other than to request the right to emigrate. The trial was a perversion of justice and of the judicial system,” he charged. Maass said the apparent intention of the Soviet authorities who have inflicted severe penalties on Jews since the 1970 Leningrad hijack trials “Is to intimidate, harass and discourage Jews from applying for exit permits.” He said that “these actions, conducted at the same time that the USSR is permitting limited numbers of Jews to emigrate, should be proof to the world that despite rumors circulated both in this country and abroad, there is no basic change in the repressive anti-Jewish policy.”
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.
