Letter: Death sentence plea

Sir: After a trial held in camera and based on the principles of the Soviet penal code, Ilie Iliascu, a Moldovan human rights activist, was sentenced to death without the right of appeal on 9 December in Tiraspol, the capital of the breakaway Transdniester republic.

Several international human rights groups have expressed the belief that the accusation against Iliascu and three others of killing two local officials is politically motivated. I urge President Boris Yeltsin to prevail upon the Tiraspol authorities to intervene and commute this severe sentence.

Yours faithfully,

DENNIS DELETANT

School of Slavonic and European Studies

University of London

London, WC1

20 December