
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 25, 1990                   TAG: 9007250005
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MOSCOW                                LENGTH: Short

ANTI-SEMITISM TRIAL BEGINS IN RAUCOUS SOVIET COURT

A man went on trial Tuesday for allegedly inciting anti-Semitism in a violent protest that galvanized fears of pogroms among Soviet Jews and prompted some to flee.

Konstantin Smirnov-Ostashvili denied being anti-Semitic, but in a conversation with reporters from the docket charged that Jews wielded a disproportionate share of power.

"A Russian person is brought to trial in the center of Russia . . . for insulting, injuring the dignity, and for instigating intolerance against those who enjoy massive privileges, and who hold the leading posts in our society," he said.

He said he faced charges that could bring him up to five years in prison because of a campaign by the Soviet press "that belongs . . . to the left, the democrats, the Zionists. I think it's all the same."

Judge A.I. Muratov postponed the trial in the Moscow City Court for a day before Smirnov-Ostashvili could enter a plea because of a crush of reporters surrounding the docket and a raucous crowd of several hundred people. Some of those present applauded the defendant's statements and shouted "Shame!" when Muratov denied his motion to dismiss his attorney.

More than 71,000 Jews emigrated from the Soviet Union as travel laws were eased last year, and thousands more have left this year.

Jewish leaders have cited "an unprecedented panic among the Jewish population" in the face of threats from extreme Russian nationalist groups such as the Pamyat society. Such groups accuse the country's 1.4 million Jews of dragging Russia down into a morass of Soviet socialism.

by CNB