Mr. President. today is the seventh anniversary of the arrest of Anatoly Shcharansky. the Soviet computer scientist who was a leader of the Moscow Jewish community and a spokesman for the Soviet Jewish emigration movement since 1973. when he first applied for and was denied permission to emigrate to Israel. On March 15. 1977. the KGB arrested this young Jewish activist. and in July of the following year. after 16 months of being detained inconmunicado. he was tried and convicted of "antiSoviet agitation and propaganda" and of the trumpedup charge of treason. At the conclusion of his 5minute trial. at which no defense was permitted. Shcharansky was sentenced to a total of 13 years of incarceration3 years in prison and then another 10 years in the harshest category of labor camp. Anatoly Shcharanskys real crime was that he was a Soviet Jew who wanted to leave the country and who fought for basic human rights. including the right of emigrate for all of his countrymen. Jewish and nonJewish alike. Shcharansky was not only an activist in the Jewish emigration movement but he was also one of the founding members of the Moscow Helsinki Monitoring Group. Along with Yuri Orlov. Aleksander Ginzburg. and the other monitors. he worked to promote his governments compliance with the 1975 Helsinki Final Act.
Keywords matched
emigrate emigration