Anatoly Sharansky, Moscow Jewish Activist, Charged with Treason, Faces Death Penalty

Anatoly Sharansky, a leading Moscow Jewish activist who has been held by Soviet police since March 15, has been officially charged with treason, an offense that carries the death penalty, the National Conference on Soviet Jewry said here today.

The NCSJ also reported that Dr. losif Begun, recently tried in Moscow for “parasitism” has been sentenced to two years in exile, within the Soviet Union. Begun is a prominent activist. Before news of his sentencing was received, a protest demonstration against his trial was conducted today by members of the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, the Pioneer Women and the Long Island division of the American Jewish Congress outside the offices of Aeroflot, the Soviet airline here.

According to reports from Moscow, Sharansky’s mother was notified of the charge in a letter from the Soviet prosecutor’s office. Mrs. Yelena Bonner, wife of Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, told Western reporters of the charge.

Sharansky was refused an emigration visa in 1973 on the grounds that his computer training was of a secret nature. His wife, Natalya, was allowed to leave for Israel the day after the couple was married. She was in the United States earlier this year to campaign for her husband’s release.

CHALLENGE TO CARTER ON HUMAN RIGHTS

NCSJ chairman Eugene Gold called the charge “absurd and abhorrent” and “a challenge to President Carter’s resolve on human rights.” He said it “must be met with the strongest reaction from the Administration and the American people.”

Sharansky was seized March 15 by eight secret policemen while in the company of two American newsmen. Prior to that, Sharansky and fellow activist Vladimir Slepak had been accused in an lzvestia article of working for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The 29-year-old computer specialist is a member of a group monitoring Soviet implementation of the human rights sections of the Helsinki agreement. Two other members of the group, its chairman Yuri Orlov and Alexander Ginsburg are also in prison on undisclosed charges. The Soviet action is seen as aimed at crushing the Helsinki monitoring group before the signators of the Helsinki agreement meet to review the treaty in Belgrade June 15.

Gold called the charge against Sharansky “the latest indicator of the tightening attitude of Soviet authorities toward the issue of free emigration and human rights for Soviet Jews.” He said that “should Soviet authorities put Sharansky on trial it would represent a trampling of human dignity and fundamental human rights. It is a challenge to President Carter’s resolve on human rights and must be met with the strongest reaction from the Administration and the American people.”