A second examination held at the Serbsky Institute and headed by the Institute’s Director G.V. Morozov concluded that Victor GONCHAROV was fit to stand trial (CCE 56). On 3-4 October a Kirovograd Court heard the case of Victor Mikhailovich Goncharov (b. 1955), who was charged under Article 187-1 of the UkSSR Criminal Code (Article 190.1 of the RSFSR Code).
Goncharov was accused of having held anti-Soviet conversations. Witnesses Larisa Kalyuzhnaya and Valery Sidnin, his acquaintances, confirmed that Goncharov had raised a toast “To the national tragedy of the Russian people!” and condemned the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. Another witness was Glukhov, an assistant chief of the fire station where Goncharov worked.
Goncharov had wanted to be defended at his trial by the Voroshilovgrad lawyer N.Y.a Nemirinskaya (CCE 53, 57), but Goncharov’s mother in Voroshilovgrad was not able to engage Nemirinskaya, although she had agreed to defend him. In his speech a Kirovograd defence attorney spoke of the merits of Goncharov’s parents and their advanced age, of Goncharov’s illness (tuberculosis) and of the positive character references about him from all his places of work.
Goncharov was sentenced to three years’ strict-regime camp. His sentence is reckoned from 23 July 1979 (CCE 54).
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