All available evidence. furthermore. can only lead one to the conclusion that these individuals. like others in that country. where entrapped by Soviet officials. The "show" trial which ensued was a complete mockery of justice resulting in outrageously heavy sentences. The fact that the two death sentences meted out in this trial were commuted to 15year prison termsa probable result of the pressure of an outraged world public opiniondoes not erase the terrible injustice done to individuals whose only "crime" was apparently their desire to escape persecution and emigrate. In publishing this past weekend a detailed courtroom account of the Leningrad trial just now reaching the West. the Washington Post concluded: This Russianlanguage account makes explicit that the fundamental accusation against the nine Jewish and two nonJewish defendants was not hijacking. as commonly believed. but attempting to leave the Soviet Union without official permission. This courtroom account was apparently assembled by friends or relatives of the defendants who were admitted to the courtroom.
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emigrate