VOA慢速英语--俄罗斯法院听取瓦伦贝格案

Russian Court to Hear Wallenberg Case

A court in Moscow is preparing to hear arguments from the family of Raoul Wallenberg in a case against Russia's Federal Security Service, or FSB.

The former Swedish diplomat¹ has been credited with saving thousands of Jews during World War II.

A lawyer for his family says the court will hear the arguments on August 17. The family is asking the FSB to provide documentation that could help prove what happened to Wallenberg at the end of the war.

“We feared we will encounter resistance from the court in the adoption² of the claim given that in recent decades,” Russian state agencies have invented reasons not to provide information on this case, lawyer Ivan Pavlov said on August 10.

Raoul Wallenberg served as a diplomat in German-occupied Hungary during World War II. He led an effort that saved the lives of thousands of Hungarian Jews.

The Soviet³ Union took control of Hungary from German forces as the war came to a close. Soviet forces captured Wallenberg in 1945. He later died in prison, although details of his death are unclear.

Russia has only said that Wallenberg died in 1947 in Moscow's Lubyanka prison. At the time, the prison was operating under the KGB, the main security agency for the Soviet Union.

The FSB replaced the KGB after the break-up of the country in 1991.

Soviet officials, and later Russia, claimed the then-35-year-old Swede died of a heart attack. Wallenberg’s family, Swedish officials, and others have disputed that claim.

Marie Dupuy, Wallenberg’s niece, said on July 26 that she had asked the Russian legal organization Team 29 to bring the case to court. "Numerous requests to Russian authorities over many years, publicly and privately⁴, by myself, by expert historians, and Swedish officials, have failed to yield any results," she said.

Dupuy claimed Russian records contained documents with direct relevance⁵ to Wallenberg's condition. But she said his family and independent experts have not been permitted to examine the documents.

"As soon as [August 17], we will clarify the position of the FSB, which has not commented on this case in any way, and we will find out what we are going to face in court," Pavlov said.

I’m John Russell.

Words in This Story

adoption – n. the process of giving official approval of something

decade – n. a period of 10 years

niece – n. a daughter of one’s brother or sister

relevance – n. relation to the issue under consideration

1 diplomat   

n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人

参考例句：

• The diplomat threw in a joke, and the tension was instantly relieved.那位外交官插进一个笑话，紧张的气氛顿时缓和下来。
• He served as a diplomat in Russia before the war.战前他在俄罗斯当外交官。

2 adoption   

n.采用，采纳，通过；收养

参考例句：

• An adoption agency had sent the boys to two different families.一个收养机构把他们送给两个不同的家庭。
• The adoption of this policy would relieve them of a tremendous burden.采取这一政策会给他们解除一个巨大的负担。

3 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

4 privately   

adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地

参考例句：

• Some ministers admit privately that unemployment could continue to rise.一些部长私下承认失业率可能继续升高。
• The man privately admits that his motive is profits.那人私下承认他的动机是为了牟利。

5 relevance   

n.中肯，适当，关联，相关性

参考例句：

• Politicians' private lives have no relevance to their public roles.政治家的私生活与他们的公众角色不相关。
• Her ideas have lost all relevance to the modern world.她的想法与现代社会完全脱节。