The World : Abuse of Soviet Jews Told

There are new reports of Jewish political prisoners being ill-treated in the Soviet Union, possibly due to police resentment over the release of Jewish dissident Anatoly Shcharansky, according to the London-based Women’s Campaign for Soviet Jewry. A spokeswoman for the rights-monitoring group cited reports that interrogators broke both legs of a Hebrew teacher at a penal settlement in the Buryatskaya autonomous republic. In another case, a Hebrew teacher reportedly was beaten while awaiting trial for protesting non-delivery of mail from the West. Shcharansky was freed in a prisoner exchange last month.