The plight of radiologists in Russia

Dr. Maria Slepak is alive, not very well and living at the moment in Moscow. Colleagues may know that she is a radiologist who has been convicted of “malicious hooliganism” because she and her husband had displayed a poster on the balcony of their flat demanding their long-refused right to emigrate and rejoin their family. This means that at any time, even near the end of her sentence, she can be sent to a labour camp for three years. She had four days notice of her trial, shortly after discharge from hospital where she had treatment for exacerbation of a duodenal ulcer. You may also have read that her husband Vladimir, an electronics engineer, was exiled to Siberia to menial work for five years on June 21, 1978 on a similar charge. She will probably be permitted to join him.