Sept. 5, 1962 - Dr. Robert Soblen’s struggle to avoid imprisonment ended today when the British Home Secretary refused to change the order deporting him to the U.S. The convicted spy will be placed aboard a Pan American flight to New York tomorrow morning. He will be accompanied by Dr. Donald Joseph Curran, a police divisional surgeon. Soblen, who suffers from lymphatic leukemia, has been sentenced to spend the remainder of his life at the U.S. Medical Center at Springfield, Mo. The Lithuanian-born psychiatrist was convicted of wartime espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union. After fleeing the U.S. on June 25, Soblen was refused political asylum in Israel and then deported from that country on July 1. On that date, Soblen wounded himself with a steak knife, forcing his hospitalization in London. A spokesman for Pan American said Soblen and Dr. Curran would travel as normal first-class passengers.
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