Informed Jewish sources here were unable to confirm reports from Moscow today that 16 Jews imprisoned on March 26 have been released. The reports from Moscow were attributed to “reliable dissident sources.” They said the Jews had spent 5-15 days in Butryka prison. All of them went on hunger strikes in jail to protest their arrests. Jewish sources here said the reports might refer to Jews who were sentenced to 15-day jail terms on the eve of the 24th Communist Party Congress last month to prevent them from demonstrating for emigration rights while the Congress was in session. A large number of Jews who demonstrated at the office of chief prosecutor Roman A. Rudenko last month were arrested and given two week sentences for “hooliganism.”
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