Soviet Jewish Activist Given 3-Year Sentence
A court in Odessa has convicted a Jewish activist of anti-Soviet slander and sentenced him to three years in a labor camp, dissidents here said Wednesday.
Mark Nepomnishy, 53, was arrested last October and charged with defaming the state by writing to people in the United States on behalf of Jews who wanted to emigrate, the dissidents told Western reporters.
He was tried, convicted and sentenced Tuesday in Odessa, a Black Sea port in the Ukraine, the dissidents said.
Nepomnishy also was a teacher of Hebrew and is one of at least five Soviet Hebrew instructors reportedly sentenced to labor camps in recent months.
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