Former Jewish Prisoner of Conscience Boris Tsitlionok has received permission from the Soviet government to leave the country within a few days, according to information obtained by the National Conference on Soviet Jewry (NCSJ).
The 35-year-old Soviet Jewish activist, arrested for demonstrating in front of Moscow’s Lenin Library on Feb. 24, 1975 after several unsuccessful attempts to obtain an exit visa, was sentenced to five years exile for “disturbing public order.” He was released last August, after spending nearly four-and-a-half years in Siberia. A plumber and lock-smith by trade, Tsitlionok was originally denied permission to leave for “security reasons” and forcibly separated from his family when they left for Israel in 1971.
While it is usual procedure for former POCs to be granted exit visas soon after their release, Tsitlionok’s friend and fellow exiled prisoner, Mark Nashpitz, is still being denied permission to leave the country. Nashpitz, a rested and sentenced together with Tsitlionok for identical reasons, has been applying for permission to emigrate to Israel since 1971. In addition to Nashpitz, three other former POCs are awaiting permission to leave. They are Isaak Shkolnik, Dr. Grigory Goldshtein and Lev Roitburd.
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