Daily Iowan (Iowa City, Iowa), 1978-07-14
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The July 14/ 1978 Vol. 111 No. 29 © 1978 Student Publicatiofls/ Inc. Iowa City's Morning Newspaper 10 cents Ginzburg gets 8 years MOSCOW (UPI) Dissident "Not enough! Not enough!" was the faced a possible death penalty on charges Alexander Ginzburg was convicted of reaction from a crowd of Soviets outside of high treason by espionage, the state anti-Soviet activities and sent to prison Ginzburg's courtroom in Kaluga, 110 prosecutor asked the court to sentence for eight years Thursday. A prosecutor in miles southwest of Moscow. him to 15 years in prison on charges that another court demanded a IS-year "Shoot them aU!" they chanted in he was a spy for the United States. The sentence for activist Anatoly unison. three judges said they would deliberate Shcharansky. In Moscow, where Shcharansky has on the sentence today. "My fate has been predetermined," the 30-year-old activist said in an emotional speech from the prisoner's dock. "I have absolutely no doubt that Pyatkus'sentence the court will support the prosecutor's recommendation. President Carter was told of thl' Ginzburg sentence during his flight to touches Iowa City Bonn, and an administration official aboard Air Force One said Carter's By ROGER THUROW criticism of the Schcharansky trial City Editor "certainly hasn't improved" Soviet-U.S. relations. Cheryl Hailey slumped over in her President Carter has said the chair when she heard the news she had espionage charges against Shcharansky been fearing for 11 months, the news are "patently false." she had been working so hard to The defendant said any attempt to prevent. clear himself was "hopeless" Ullder the "Lithuanian dissident Viktoras Soviet system. Pyatkus today was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment and five years of "One-and..a-half years before my trial I exile for anti-Soviet agitation and ac was denounced as a traitor in the tivities." She read with alarm the UPI government newspaper Izvestia and account from Moscow. accused of espionage," Shcharansky The news of Pyatkus' conviction was said. He noted the four days of his trial overshadowed on the wires by thur had been marked by outbursts from the sday's developments in the much specially-screened trial audience, includ publicized trials of dissidents Viktoras Pyatkus ing such shouts as: "We should hang Alexander Ginzburg and Anatoly could be channeled down to the such people," and "What a scoundrel." Shcharansky. But for Hailey, the small prisoner. But yet you have to be firm Shcharansky made it clear that he news bulletin about Pyatkus came and lodge a protest. The Russians seem believed he was charged with treason across like a bombshell. to be sensitive to public opinion, so I because he was a Jew who wanted to "This is very, very upsetting," she think our letters do some good." lea ve Russia and go to Israel. said slowly, staring at a picture of But in the case of Viktorus Pyatkus, Pyatkus that had been smuggled out of the letters did little good. He spelled out briefly the long histor By UnIted Pr_ Intomotlonof the Soviet Union by fellow dissidents . On Thursday, Pyatkus was convicted of Jews in Russia - the bloody pogroms, The Carter family arrives in West Germany for the start of a West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt (right) lead the proces The simultaneous trials of the Soviet on two charges of anti-Soviet activities, the birt!} of Zionism, the initial support of five-day visit, during which time the President will meet with sion at the Bonn-Cologne Airport, followed by Rosalynn and Amy dissidents has attracted the attention of and the Soviet court sentenced him to Jews for the new Soviet revolution, and European leaders for economic summit talks. President Carter and Carter and Schmidt's wife Loki. a large number of Americans, but none three years in prison at hard labor, then their persecution in the Stalin era. perhaps is watching the situation more seven years in a prison labor camp and Shcharansky said 1SO,000 Soviet Jews closely than Hailey and a handful of five years of Siberian exile. He was also have emigrated in the last eight years Iowa City residents who, as members of charged with homosexuality, and asked, "[s this a provocation of the ICLU files abortion funding suit the local branch of Amnesty Inter drunkenness and corruption of American intelligence services?" national (AI) , have adopted the cause juveniles. Dissident sources reported another By TOM DRURY than two weeks after they went into ef- of the state constitution may also be of freeing Pyatkus. "The most upsetting thing Is that the Staff Writer guilty verdict Thursday in the third trial fect. • violated by the funding regulations . On Aug . 24 , Pyatkus, a founder of the Soviets fabricated and trumped up this week against an activISt accused of He noted that the 1973 Supreme Court Uthuanian "Helsinki" group (ormed to these charges. Homosexuality, Iowa's restrictions on the use of The Iowa Civil Liberties Union filed anti-Soviet activities. suit in Polk County District Court to force ruling that made abortion legal monitor Soviet compliance with human drunkenness and corruption of Viktoras Pyatkus, 49, a veteran of 16 Medicaid funds for abortions were the state pay for abortions for aU throughout the nation was based on rights provisions of the 1975 Helsinki juveniles. It hurts that those things are challenged in state court Thursday, less to years in Soviet prisons, was convicted women who receive Medicaid benefits. women's right to privacy, their right to accords, was arrested in Vilnius for being thrown at a man of his moral and sentenced to 10 years in prison and do with their bodies as they choose. speaking out about human rights character," Hailey said. "The Soviet "We feel the state should be paying for £ive years of Siberian exile in Vilnius, "Almost all Medicaid women can 't get violat\ons and repression of Lithuanian Constitution calls for freedom of Lithuania. He was the founder of the Senate passes allllbortions for indigent women, just as the money (for an abortion), so they Catholics by the Soviets. He became a speech, and he was ' exercising that it pays for other medical services," said Lithuanian group which monitors Soviet J won 't have that choice," Brown said. "prisoner of conscience" and im freedom when he was arrested." compliance with the Helsinki human Steven Brown, executive director for the Abortions at the VI Hospitals range in media tely attracted the concern of AI, Pya tkus, who has already spent 16 of rights accords. usury bill on ICLU. price from $116 to $630, depending on the champion for the world's prisoners his 49lears of life in Soviet prisons, The suit, filed on behalf of a pregnant method used . being punished for their ideas, religion or race. refuse to defend himself on Thursday. \ Medicaid recipient who wants an The woman involved in the suit under He had to be physically pushed into the to House abortion but cannot afford one, said the pseudonym "Priscilla Poe" is in her The case of Viktoras Pyatkus was assigned to the Iowa City branch of AI, courtroom by his guards, and once DES MOINES (UPI) - The Senate, Iowa's present restrictions on abortion 11th week of pregnancy and may well there he spent hts days lying on his back attempting to break a three-month funqing violate equal protection and complete her term before the court and for the past 11 months Hailey and about 10 compatriots working out of in the defendant's box with his eyes stalemate, Thursday evening passed and privacy provisions of the state con reaches a final decision, Brown said. closed. sent to the House legisla tion to increase stitution. But he added the suit is being filed as a Center East have been writing letters to the limit on home loan interest rates. Soviet officials "from Andrei Gromyko Although she has only written letters Under the Department of Social Ser class action, and "Poe" is representing The upper chamber approved the bill all female Medicaid recipients who wish (Soviet foreign minister) down to the on his behalf, Hailey said she has grown vices appropriation granted by the Iowa prison warden." very close to this man since the Iowa on a 43-7 vote after adding provisions Legislature last spring, the state pays for to have an abortion. sponsors said were designed 10 make it "By writing the letters we hope to City group "adopted" him last faU. abortions for Medicaid recipients only The Supreme Court has ruled, Brown bring Soviet attention to the fact that "I've become very attached to acceptable to the House, which has in when pregnancy endangers a mother's explained, that the completion of a term sisted on coupling an increase in the they are being wa tched by the outside Viktorus Pyatkus. I had a real life; when a fetus is physically deformed, of a plaintiff seeking government world and that there is inte,"ational emotional reaction when I first saw his home loan interest rate with lower con mentally deficient, or has a congenital abortion funding does not nullify a suit. swner credit interest rates. concern for the status of the prisoner," picture. You could visualize the man. It illness; when a pregnancy is caused by Gordon Allen will conduct the ICLU's HaiJey said. made it much more realistic. The Many lawmakers feared failure to pass rape or incest reported within a statutory case. Brown said the union so far has no a bill would result in severe political "We have our low moments, to be longer I've been on the case, the more time limit; amd when an abortion is the indication when the suit will be heard in sure.