Wife fears spy trial

Press, 3 September 1986, Page 8

Wife fears spy trial

NZPA-AP Moscow The wife of a detained American reporter, Nicholas Daniloff, says she fears her husband will be put on trial on espionage charges once the Soviets complete a 10day investigation. Daniloff, .a "U.S. News and World Report,” correspondent, has told his wife, Ruth, that he was jumped by eight KGB agents on Saturday after meeting a Soviet acquaintance who gave him a package later found to contain two maps marked “top secret” and photographs of Soviet military installations. She and the couple’s 16-year-old son, Caleb, spent about an hour with him yesterday in an annexe of east Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison. The United States Consul-General, Mr Roger

Daley, accompanied them to the prison but was not present for the meeting. Daniloff was interrogated for four hours on Saturday in Lefortovo. His wife said he was questioned again yesterday. She said both Daniloff and a K.G.B. investigator, Valery Sergodeyev, had mentioned the time limit. Whether the 10 days would be counted from his arrest on Saturday was not clear, she said. Mortimer Zuckerman, chairman of “U.S. News and World Report,” called the jailing “a phoney arrest based on contrived circumstances.” Mr Zuckerman flew into Moscow yesterday from Washington and said he woul rt meet senior Soviet officials today to press for Daniloffs release.