Two That Didn't Get Away SIR,-- I understand that Sinyaysky's works
contain expressions of opinion capable of being construed as critical of the Soviet political system. His works were published in the West. It needs, therefore, no innuendo of a rigged trial to account for the con- viction of Sinyaysky and his co-accused Daniel.
What is at fault is not so much the trial as the fact that the charges could be brought at all. Any country is entitled to its own laws to regulate the affairs of its peoples. When those laws so stifle free expression of opinion as to be responsible for the savage sentence passed on a writer of some merit and great probity and courage, then that country cannot claim a place among the civilised community of nations.
The West Bristol Group of Amnesty International, on whose behalf I write, has adopted Sinyaysky as a prisoner of conscience and is pressing Mr. A. Kosygin, the Soviet Prime Minister, for the release of Sinyaysky- and will continue to do so until his release is a fact. your readers, who may well have joined in the world-wide protests at his arrest and trial, are invited to continue making them for the foreseeable future, in the hope that the Russian rulers will try to redeem their outrageous political act by the only acceptable form of redemption. DAVID ROBERTS
Holly Lodge, Long Ashton, Nr. Bristol
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