The Guardian of Liberty - Nemzetőr, 1985 (8. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)

1985-03-01 / 2. szám

Prisoners of Conscience —— ----------——' ’Disobedience' Law Makes Re-Sentencing Easy With the Soviet human-rights scene now as bleak as at any other time since Stalin’s death 32 years ago, there are indications that the Communist authorities intend to be even more arbitrarily repressive in their treatment of prisoners of conscience. Legislation introduced in September, 1983, further facilitates a long-standing practice in the USSR: the re-sentencing of prisoners of conscience shortly before they are due for release from custody. This legislation, Article 188/3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, deals with the loosely interpreted offence of „maliciously disobeying the demands of the administration of a corrective labour establishment." The first person known to have been sentenc­ed under this article is Vladimir Poresh, who was charged in June, 1984, one day before completing five years’ „strict regime" imprison­ment. Information about his trial, held on October 23 in an administrative building attached to Chistopol prison, was recently received from the USSR. Born in January, 1949, Poresh is a philologist and a graduate of Leningrad University. He was baptised into the Russian Orthodox Church in 1974 and later edited an unofficial (samizdat) religious journal. Arrested in 1979, he was sentenced in April, 1980, to the five years’ imprisonment and three years' „internal exile." At the end of his trial on October 23, 1984, he was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment but still had to complete the one day in jail and three years' „internal exile" which were outstanding from his previous sentence. His wife and parents attended the trial but neither they nor any other relations had been officially Informed that it was to be held. The indictment comprised four counts: two of „insolvence towards the administration" and one each of „infringement of the regime" (of the penal system) and „refusal to work." The first count of „insolence" related to a protest made by Poresh and seven cell-mates over a prisoner in an adjoining cell having been assaulted with fists and a club. The other „insolence" count concerned a complaint by Poresh over the prison governor having arbitrarily reduced the daily bread ration of certain prisoners from 450 grams to 350 grams. He aocused the governor of having in effect, stolen the bread. At the trial he said he was prepared to apologise if he had insulted the governor, although it was difficult to understand the governor's actions since the procuracy had ordered that the 450-gram ration be reinstated. In relation to the „infringement of the re­gime" count, a guard manning a watchtower claimed that Poresh bad thrown a note from one exercise yard to another. He disputed this, as the note produced in court was written in Hebrew, a language which he does not under­stand. However, Poresh deolared defiantly that he had thrown such notes in the past and would continue to do so, just as he had communicated with fellow-prisoners in other ways. He added that for two years he had not been disciplined for such behaviour. But, when if was found necessary ,he had incurred a series of seven disciplinary offences. In his view, the use of Article 188/3 meant that a person might never be released. The „refusal to work" count related to Poresh and other prisoners having gone on strike in protest against warders breaking one of the hands of a fellow inmate. At the trial Poresh said that when strikes occurred in the West, the Soviet Union applauded. „When such things happen here, however, we are made to answer criminal charges." Even without applying Article 188/3, many prisoners of conscience have in recent years been re-sentenced shortly before they were due to be released. For example, Wladimir Skvirsky, a founder­­member of the Free Inter-professional Associa­tion of Workers (SMOT), one of the outlawed independent trade unions in the USSR, received a three-year sentence last November. He has been re-charged four times since his arrest in 1978. About 40 Soviet Baptists are serving repeated sentences, although most have had short peri­ods of freedom between terms of imprisonment. Nikolai Baturin is serving his seventh term and others are in their third of fourth terms. A blind Baptist, Mikhail Khorev, was re-charged on November 22 when nearing the end of a five-year sentence. Yet another Baptist, Alexei Kalyashin, was not freed as expected on September 1, 1984. It seems that Article 188/3 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, together with any similar laws in the USSR’s other constituent republics, is intended to facilitate the established practice of arbitrarily re-sentencing prisoners of con­science. 12 FIRST CASUALTY FIGURES SINCE 1979 (Continued from page 11) body, and if was not always from the body of the dead person (in question). That is why, he said, the coffins must not be opened." There have also been many deaths in Af­ghanistan of soldiers from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the three formerly independent Baltic republics annexed by the USSR in 1940 in accordance with the Nazi German-Soviet Non-aggression Treaty. In March, 1982, a Lithuanian samizdat jour­nal, Ausra, reported that representatives of the „oppressed nationalities" — Ukrainians, Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians — were being compelled to take part in Moscow’s subjugation of Afghanistan. The Ausra article said: „More and more tragic news is reaching us about Lithuanians who have fallen in Afghanistan. The dead are brought home in zinc-coated coffins and buried secretly. „Mothers are not allowed to see their dead sons... The coffins are brought to Vilnius, Klaipeda, Alyfus, Panevezys, Siauliai, Druskinin­­kai and other towns. They are brought to all rayons and to the villages." THE GUARDIAN OF LIBERTY (NEMZETŐR) • EvcyowhtalhaHgkttofrmdouioNioo Erscheint 2monatlich. Einzelpreis für Deutschland DM 4,— Edited by the Editorial Board Verleger, Herausgeber und Inhaber TIBOR KECSKESI TOLLAS Journalist, Schriftsteller, München Ferchenbachstraße 88, D-8000 München 50 FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY Verantwortlicher Redakteur (Editor): MIKLÓS VARY Ferchenbachstraße 88, D-8000 München 50 Druck (print): DANUBIA DRUCKEREI GMBH Ferchenbachstraße 88, D-8000 München 50 AFRICA REPRESENTATIVES & SALE CAMEROON: L. T. JOHNSON, Divisional Inspectorate of Education, NKAMBE, North West Province, Republic of CAMEROON. EAST AFRICA: (2— Sh, by air) (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania) : General-Representative: International African Literary Agents. P.O. Box 46055 NAIROBI, Kenya; NIGERIA (2.— Sh): Yemi OYENEYE, P. M. B. 101, Agege, Lagos. SIERA LEONE: (10 Le. c.; annual: 60) 1. Alusine B. Kargbo, c/o 2 Alusine St., Newsite Kissy, Freetown; SOMALIA: (2.— Sh., by air) Haji Jama Ali, P.O.B. 248, Hargeisa. MAURITIUS NALANTJA Co. Ltd., 30, Bourbon Str., Port-Louis. GREAT BRITAIN F. Szabó, 100 Liddel Gardens, London N.W. 10 U. S. A. Bála H. BÁCSKAI, P.O. Box 102, Audubon/Pa. 19407. AUSTRALIA Mr. Jenő Beák, 3/50 Warrandyte Rd., RINGWOOD 3/34 Vic., Australia PRICES: Surface mail: 1 copy AFRICA 1.80 Sh (100 CFA), Britein 60 P, Australia, USA, Canada: $ 2.— Germany: DM 4.— Annual subscription: AFRICA Sh 10 (500 CFA), Britain 3 — £, Germany/Europe : DM 20,-(or equivalent) Australia USA, Canada: $ 10.— For air mall add 26*1* For students 50 Vo discount Our BANK ACCOUNT: No. 2605756 Commerzbank AG. Munich, Federal Republic of Germany. Shot-down Airliner: Relatives Sue Relatives of some of the 269 people killed when a Soviet fighter shot down a South Korean Boeing 747 airliner on September 1, 1983, have begun suing the USSR for compensa­tion in neutral Switzerland. For example, Visith Vongtonglue and Young­­yut Hansuwanpbisit, with a total of three rela­tives killed, are seeking 40 million Thai baht (more than 1,400,000 dollars). A Swiss court has accepted the case on the grounds that Switzerland observes international lawt re­cognising that the shooting down of a civilian aircraft is a crime against humanity and a terrorist action. MARCH-APRIL, 1985

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