Guilty As Charged

A "circus"trial threatens dissidents

The sign outside the dingy, heavily guarded building in southwestern Moscow proclaimed: PEOPLE'S COURT. But what went on inside it last week was a caricature of justice. After four days of carefully rigged proceedings, a panel of three judges handed down the expected verdict: Yuri Orlov, a leading Soviet dissident who had been held incommunicado for more than 15 months, was found guilty of "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda." The 53-year-old physicist was then sentenced to seven years in a labor camp, to be followed by five years of exile in a remote part of the Soviet Union. In Washington, a State Department spokesman called the trial "a gross distortion of internationally accepted standards of human rights."

Orlov's "crime," in the Kremlin's eyes, was his role in organizing a Moscow committee to monitor Soviet compliance with the human rights provisions of the 1975 Helsinki accord on European Security and Cooperation. The committee prepared a number of documents, petitions and open addresses charging that "many hundreds" of Soviet citizens were "languishing in prisons and camps [for] political, ethical and religious beliefs." Free emigration and reunification of families, according to Orlov's group, were still being severely hampered, even though these rights were endorsed by the Helsinki accord. Introducing these reports as evidence at last week's trial, the state prosecutor maintained that they were "a fabrication from beginning to end."

Orlov's opportunity to defend himself was sharply restricted. John MacDonald, the British lawyer whom Orlov had wanted as his attorney, was not allowed to enter the Soviet Union. In his place, the court appointed Yevgeni Shalman, a Moscow lawyer who, according to MacDonald, has "worked for the KGB for a time." Neither Orlov nor Shalman, moreover, could cross-examine the prosecution's 15 witnesses or call witnesses of their own.

Although the Soviet news agency Tass described the proceeding as an "open trial," Orlov's sympathizers were barred from the courtroom, as were foreign journalists and a representative of the U.S. embassy. Other members of the Helsinki monitoring group gathered outside the court building, frequently clashing verbally with the police and KGB security agents. Nobel Laureate Andrei Sakharov, the Soviet Union's leading dissident, and his wife Yelena were pushed by the police. They shoved back, were thrown into a van and taken to a police station, where they were held for several hours.

Orlov's wife Irina, 33, and his two sons (by a previous marriage) were allowed to witness the trial. During recesses, they briefed newsmen and sympathizers outside. Irina, describing the proceedings as a circus, said that her husband did not deny giving the monitor committee's documents to Western journalists. But he insisted that he did so for humanitarian reasons, to bring Soviet practice in line with Moscow's pledges at Helsinki. Orlov sarcastically asked the judges: "Is it a crime to meet foreign correspondents?" According to his wife, he was constantly interrupted by "spectators," hand-picked by the authorities, who shouted: "Traitor." "You're lying."

Now that Orlov has been convicted and sentenced, Soviet authorities may soon begin the trials of two other well known members of the Helsinki monitoring committee: Computer Specialist Anatoli Shcharansky and Writer Alexander Ginzburg. Meanwhile the police have been harassing, arresting and trying less well known dissidents. A court in the Soviet Republic of Georgia last week sentenced Zviad Gamsakhurdia, a writer, and Merab Kostava, a musicologist. They, like Orlov, had belonged to a Helsinki monitoring group.

The Kremlin's crackdown seems to be successful; the dissident movement has fallen to its lowest level of activity in several years. But the new policy may contribute to the strains in U.S.-Soviet relations. Indeed, Washington has warned that detente, SALT and the easing of current trade restriction may be endangered if Moscow continues its hard line against the human rights advocates.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.