Sakharov, Mandela release predicted

Press, 9 July 1986, Page 10

Sakharov, Mandela release predicted

NZPA-Reuter Bonn The West German newspaper, “Bild,” said today that the Soviet dissident, Andrei Sakharov, and • the jailed South African black nationalist leader, Nelson Mandela, would be freed later this year as part of an EastWest prisoner exchange. “According to ’Bild’ information, Washington and Moscow have agreed on this and on an EastWest exchange of agents," said; the newspaper. It named no sources for the report. “Bild” said that the French President, Mr Francois Mitterrand, who arrived in Moscow yesterday. for talks, with the Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, after seeing Ronald Reagan in Washington, would go over the

details of the arrangement. It said the release of Mr Mandela against that of Dr Sakharov and his wife, Yelena Bonner, in internal exile in the Soviet city of Gorky, would take place before the next summit meeting between Messrs Reagan and Gorbachev, tentatively proposed for later this year.

"Bild” said the United States, the Soviet Union, South Africa, West Germany, and East Germany were party to the agreement, which would also include several communist agents held in the West and at least three Soviet spies imprisoned in the United States.

The newspaper, which in February broke the news in advance of the release of a Soviet dissident, Anatoly Shcharan-

sky, in an East-West exchange, has speculated on a Sakharov-Mandela deal several times in recent months. "Bild” noted that South Africa had lifted longstanding restrictions on the movements of Mr Mandela’s wife, Winnie. The South African President, Mr Pieter Botha, said in January that he would consider freeing Mr Mandela if Mr Shcharansky, Dr , Sakharov, and a South African commando officer held in Angola were set free at the same time. When Mr Shcharansky walked to the West across the Berlin Glienicke Bridge on February 11, South Africa said the exchange had not met its conditions and that Mr Mandela would not be released.