Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

SOVIET RELEASING SOME PRISONERS UNDER NEW LAW

SOVIET RELEASING SOME PRISONERS UNDER NEW LAW
Credit...The New York Times Archives
See the article in its original context from
February 8, 1987, Section 1, Page 1Buy Reprints
TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers.
About the Archive
This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.

The Soviet Government has issued a decree ordering the release of dozens of political prisoners, according to evidence provided today by prisoners already set free.

More than 40 people to be released have been identified so far, most of them apparently under a decree issued Monday by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the legislative body.

It is believed to be the first group release of political prisoners since hundreds of thousands were freed by Nikita S. Khrushchev after the death of Stalin in 1953.

The existence of the decree, which has not been announced, is confirmed by information on the release certificates given to prisoners. Decree Said to Identify 51

One of those released, Sergei Grigoryants, a former editor of an underground journal, said today on his arrival from Chistopol prison that he had been told by prison officials that the decree named 51 people to be freed.

The decree apparently applies mainly to prisoners serving time under Article 70 of the Russian Republic's criminal code, which prohibits ''anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda.''

The prisoners were required to write statements promising that they would not engage in harmful activities. Mr. Grigoryants and another newly freed prisoner, Yuri A. Shikhanovich, said the wording of the statements was left up to the prisoners themselves. Sakharov Lists 42 Releases

''They asked me to write a statement that amounted to a promise I would not take to the streets with a machine gun,'' Mr. Grigoryants jested.

Andrei D. Sakharov, the physicist, and his wife, Yelena G. Bonner, keep a running total of releases based on telephone calls they receive. By this evening, they listed 42 people, and said there were rumors about others. The list did not include some of releases reported earlier, such as that of Serafim Yevsyukov, an Aeroflot navigator freed from a psychiatric hospital two weeks ago.

A few prisoners on the list were freed two weeks ago, indicating there had been releases in addition to those under the decree Monday.

Today, in the homes of long-imprisoned dissidents, there were ecstatic reunions and optimistic talk about the prospects for the Soviet Union.

''I guess something is changing in the Soviet Union,'' said Mr. Grigoryants, who was reunited at noon with his wife and two children. ''It may be that enough has changed so that I can live here.''

He said Dr. Sakharov had advised him and others to support Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet leader, who has been behind the recent relaxations in Soviet life.

''Sakharov thinks that we should help Gorbachev, that Gorbachev himself has done a lot to improve the situation in this country,'' Mr. Grigoryants said. ''I think Andrei Dmitriyevich is right,'' Mr. Grigoryants added, using Dr. Sakharov's first name and patronymic, in the Russian fashion.

Mr. Grigoryants said he happened to be confined to an isolation cell when he was summoned Jan. 30 to meet with a representative of the procurator's office. He was told that as a condition of his release, he should write a statement promising he would ''engage in no illegal activities, if the law-enforcement authorities will abide by the law on their side.'' He wrote the statement.

''Two days ago, on Feb. 5, I was told that I became a free man on Feb. 2, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet,'' Mr. Grigoryants said.

Under the Soviet political system, the Presidium issues laws and decrees between the occasional sessions of the full Supreme Soviet, the nominal legislature. The Presidium is led by the President, Andrei A. Gromyko.

Mr. Grigoryants was sentenced in 1983 to 10 years of imprisonment and internal exile for contributing to an underground bulletin about political or religious prisoners. He said he was repeatedly beaten and denied proper medical care.

He said he planned to write about his experiences, including the death of prominent prison mate, Anatoly Marchenko, last December. Mr. Marchenko died after a hunger strike under what Mr. Grigoryants said were questionable circumstances.

Today Mr. Grigoryants was tearfully reunited with Mr. Marchenko's widow, Larisa Bogoraz, who had brought a bouquet of flowers.

At the Sakharovs' apartment, Miss Bonner dispatched friends to buy wine and make salads to celebrate the homecoming of Mr. Shikhanovich, a mathematician who is a family friend and who was spending the afternoon there with his wife and daughter, recounting his experiences in a labor camp in Perm Province, in the Urals.

Mr. Shikhanovich, who was arrested in 1983 for his work on Chronicle of Current Events, an underground journal, displayed his certificate of release, which said he had been freed under the Feb. 2 decree. He said he was set free with six others.

Referring to the statements renouncing illegal activities, Mr. Shikhanovich said: ''Any piece of paper satisfies them. They want to release as many of the Article 70 prisoners as possible.''

Article 70 has been a major tool in the suppression of dissent. Soviet officials have hinted recently that the statute may be modified under a planned review of the criminal code.

Dissidents said the Feb. 2 decree was unusual in its wording. In the past, amnesties have been applied to certain categories of prisoners, such as the elderly or those with only a few months remaining on sentences.

Mr. Shikhanovich said this decree provided for ''premature curtailment of imprisonment,'' which appears to mean that identity papers will not carry a record of the prison term. Such an entry often makes it difficult to obtain residence and work permits.

Dissidents noted that many people serving time for political or religious activities remained unaffected so far. The list of those reportedly freed contained few of those serving time for illegal religious activities, such as membership in unauthorized sects, and few Ukrainian nationalists, who are believed to make up a substantial percentage of political prisoners.

Western groups estimate the number of political prisoners at 1,000 to 3,000, but some emigres contend the number is much larger.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section 1, Page 1 of the National edition with the headline: SOVIET RELEASING SOME PRISONERS UNDER NEW LAW. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT