I am pleased to join our colleagues in commemorating this anniversary but I deplore the Soviets blatant disregard for the promises made at Helsinki thatonce againnecessitate the observance of this tragic event. Anatoly Shcharansky was convicted and sentenced to 13 years imprisonment in July 1978 in a trial that was devoid of any semblance of justice. The official charge against Shcharansky was "treason." But. as one Soviet dissident phrased it. his real crime was that he spoke the truth and he spoke it in English. As a leader of the Jewish emigration movement and as a founding member of the Moscow Helsinki Monitoring Group. Shcharansky boldly spoke out against Soviet tyranny. He protested the Soviet Governments refusal to allow freedom of emigration for Jews. Germans. Pentecostals. and others.
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emigration