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Belarusian Jewish Leader Freed After Guilty Tax Evasion Verdict


Jewish leader Yury Dorn
Jewish leader Yury Dorn
MINSK -- The chairman of the Judaic Religious Association of Belarus, Yury Dorn, has been sentenced to two years in a labor camp for tax evasion, but was immediately set free.

The judge presiding over the case in Minsk ruled on March 29 that each day Dorn spent in his jail cell was equivalent to two days in a labor camp and ordered his release.

Dorn was arrested a year ago on charges of tax evasion, forgery, abuse of office, and the illegal destruction of documents.

He was also accused of illegally deconstructing an old building related to the history of Jews in western Belarus and shipping it to the United States.

All the charges except for tax evasion were dropped during his trial, which began in December.
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