Deportation of Karl Linnas

Karl Linnas was deported to the Soviet Union. As he was shoved into a police car en route to the Czechoslovak plane, he shouted, “God bless America!” According to The Times, he is the “first American to be forcibly returned to face a death sentence in the Soviet Union.” Perhaps this is technically true, but what of Andrija Artukovic who still awaits his death sentence in a Yugoslav prison?

Linnas is not the first, and, I fear, will not be the last.

Whether Linnas is guilty or innocent of the charges brought against him is not the salient issue. The real issue of enormous import is his deportation to the U.S.S.R. We have no extradition treaty with the Soviets, and yet we delivered this man, an American citizen, into the hands of a police state that has already tried, found guilty and sentenced him to death. It comes as no surprise that the verdict of the “trial” was published in the official Soviet legal journal several weeks prior to the actual proceedings.

MARGARET SEELEY

Orange