Russian dissidents on trial

Press, 24 September 1980, Page 9

Russian dissidents on trial

1 NZPA-Reuter Moscow ' Two dissidents who cam- ■ paigned against restrictions on religious freedom and abuses of psychiatry in the 1 Soviet Union have gone on trial in Moscow accused of anti-State offences. Lev Regelson, aged 41, a former teacher and member of an unofficial , Christian Committee for the Defence of Believers’ Rights, was reported by the Soviet Tass news agency to have pleaded guilty to a charge of antiSoviet agitation and propaganda. Tass said that he had "declared his sincere repentance” and pledged he would renouce this former activities.

As is normal practice in Soviet dissident trials, Western reporters were barred from the courtroom and the report of Regelson’s recantation could not be confirmed independently. In a separate trial bn the outskirts of the capital, Vyacheslav Bakhmin, . a member of an unofficial working group which investigates alleged abuses of psychiatry against dissenters, were charged with the less serious offence of slandering the State. Bakhmin, aged 33, a pub-lic-health engineer, publicised charges that sane political dissenters and religious believers were committed to psychiatric hospitals in the Soviet Union because of their views.

The Tass report said that the psychiatric working group’s bulletin contained lies which were passed abroad to be used by antiSoviet organisations and publishers, and by the United States-financed Radio Liberty, which broadcasts to the Soviet Union. Bakhmin faces a maximum sentence of three years labour camp while Regelson faces up to seven years in camp and five in internal exile, though such harsh terms are rarely imposed if the accused recants. Regelson’s co-member of the Christian Committee, a Russian Orthodox priest, the Rev. Gleb Yakunin, was sentenced a month ago to five years camp and five in exile on the same charges. Tass said that Regelson had maintained "criminal relations” with Western correspondents in Moscow, naming five American, British, and Norwegian reporters. All have now left the Soviet Union. Both trials will continue today.