Harvard Law Professors Send Petition Protesting Orlov Trial

Outraged by what they describe as a "perfect mockery of justice," a group of Harvard Law School professors signed a petition sent last week to Moscow and the Soviet Embassy in Washington, denouncing the conviction of Soviet physicist Yuri Orlov who was found guilty last week in Moscow of "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda."

Orlov was arrested more than a year ago after having organized a group to publicize Soviet violations of human rights pledges. He was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment and five years of internal exile.

The petition, signed by 230 professors from 30 different universities, was meant to express sympathy for Orlov, whose only crime was to found an organization to mind human rights, Alan J. Dershowitz '58, professor of Law, said yesterday.

Dershowitz and a law professor at Columbia University decided to send the petition last Thursday, the day of the conviction, with as many signatures as they could get that day, Dershowitz said.

Dershowitz added that 15 Harvard Law School professors signed the petition, including Albert M. Sacks, dean of the Law School.

"We were so outraged at the mockery. There wasn't even a pretense of justice in his trial," Dershowitz said.

There has yet been no response to the petition, and several professors who signed it said yesterday they are not expecting an answer.

"The response could be subtle. We just want them to do something," Dershowitz said.

The American academics are hoping to show the Soviets that they cannot continue to pursue these kinds of injustices, Lawrence Tribe, professor of Law, said yesterday.

Tribe added, "We are a group of people who favor detente. We do not have a cold war attitude, but we hope they will feel that we are becoming alienated by these actions."

Officials at the Soviet Embassy in Washington could not be reached for comment yesterday.