Senate Panel Subpoenas Soviet Sailor for Questioning : Ship, Scheduled to Leave Today, Will Not Be Allowed to Depart With Seaman, U.S. Warns

The Senate Agriculture Committee on Thursday subpoenaed a Soviet sailor to testify at a hearing here next week to see if he truly wants to go home after twice jumping from ships into the Mississippi River.

However, the captain of the vessel refused to accept the subpoena when two committee lawyers tried to serve him with the document late Thursday night. Senate aide David Sullivan told reporters in Louisiana that the captain was acting on orders from his government and would not accept the subpoena until Soviet officials arrived from Washington today. The ship has been taking on corn at a grain elevator at Reserve, La.

The unusual action by the Senate committee cleared the way for a showdown between the Soviets, whose ship is scheduled to leave port today, and the Customs Service, which said late Thursday night that it will not allow the Marshal Konev to depart with 22-year-old Miroslav Medvid aboard until its commanders comply with the subpoena.

Withhold Clearance

Customs spokesman Dennis Murphy said in Washington that the Coast Guard is prepared to withhold departure clearance for the ship if the Soviets refuse to cooperate. But it was uncertain how the subpoena would be enforced.

U.S. officials will be allowed to board the ship for negotiations after the Soviet officials arrive today, Sullivan said.

Medvid jumped ship twice on Oct. 24 in apparent attempts to defect, but he was returned to the vessel, both times by U.S. officials. Later, he told U.S. representatives that he did not wish to remain in the United States.

Near the vessel, meanwhile, members of a U.S. activist group spent Thursday urging all the Soviet sailors aboard to defect. And, United Press International reported, some of the sailors, who first jeered at the group, indicated that Medvid was being held below deck in shackles. Leaning over the railing, they gestured that Medvid’s wrists were bound.

Administration Dilemma

The Senate committee subpoena seemed to throw the Administration into a dilemma only hours after Assistant Secretary of State Rozanne L. Ridgway had told a House hearing that a subpoena was “inappropriate and unnecessary” and that “the matter is closed.”

Ridgway said that, although she had “no doubt” that Medvid originally wanted to defect and then was coerced by Soviet officials into changing his mind, the Administration is satisfied that he made a competent decision to remain on the ship.

But the Agriculture Committee, threatened with a filibuster if it tried to obtain full Senate approval of a subpoena, issued its own summons on a 12-1 vote.

“From what I know, it’s a perfect absurdity to suggest that this fellow really wants to go back to the Soviet Union,” Chairman Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) said. He justified its issuance by his committee, saying that the Medvid matter could affect the U.S.-Soviet grain trade.

Message Intercepted

Helms also confirmed a report in Thursday’s New York Times that the National Security Agency had intercepted a telephone message from the Soviet Embassy in Washington to the ship, ordering its captain to drug Medvid before he met with U.S. officials.

Ridgway told a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee that Medvid “appeared to be sedated” when U.S. officials visited him aboard his ship Oct. 25, the day after he jumped off that vessel and another boat--manned by U.S. Border Patrol officers--that was returning him to the grain ship.

However, Medvid appeared to be alert the next day when he was interviewed by U.S. officials and said repeatedly that he did not wish to defect, Ridgway told the panel.

The subpoena “commanded” Medvid to appear at a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Senators Critical

Two Republican senators, Alan K. Simpson of Wyoming and Charles McC. Mathias Jr. of Maryland, were critical of the Helms committee’s action. Simpson said Medvid should be allowed to return home even though he may have been coerced, and he strongly objected to the subpoena because he said it might invite retaliation against U.S. citizens in the Soviet Union.

Mathias said the committee had violated Senate rules by stepping outside its jurisdiction. Both senators indicated that they would filibuster any attempt to obtain the full Senate’s support of a subpoena.

James Lucier, an aide to Helms, said that, if the Soviets resist the subpoena, the full Senate would have to vote to enforce it before the Senate sergeant-at-arms or U.S. marshals could be ordered to take custody of Medvid.

Times staff writer J. Michael Kennedy contributed to this story.