World: Protest on Trial

On Aug. 25, only four days after Soviet tanks moved into Czechoslovakia, a small group of Russian dissenters in Moscow's Red Square unfurled banners that said HANDS OFF CZECHOSLOVAKIA! and SHAME ON THE INVADERS! Beaten, cursed and arrested by KGB (secret police) agents, they were charged with making a public disturbance and slandering the Soviet Union. After a three-day trial, a Moscow court two weeks ago imposed terms of exile or imprisonment on the five defendants. By banning foreign newsmen from the trial and by packing the small courtroom with a specially selected...

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