Greece Holds 5 as Spies After Defector Talks

Five Greeks have been arrested on spying charges partly as the result of information supplied by a Soviet diplomat who defected to the United States, Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou said today.

Papandreou, who has moved to forge close ties between his Socialist government and the Kremlin, said the accused men had not leaked significant information.

The government announced the arrest of three people--a naval officer and two electronics experts--as possible spies in September. But Papandreou referred in Parliament to “leaks by five people,” without naming the other two.

In a major policy speech, he confirmed news reports that the head of Greek intelligence, George Politis, had gone to the United States and questioned Sergei Bokhan, a Soviet diplomat who defected to Washington in May.

‘One Has Confessed’

He said that on the basis of Politis’ investigation and other information, “I can tell you . . . that the leaks by five Greeks, because only five have been named, and one of them has confessed, are very much of secondary importance.”

“The Greek Pentagon (Defense Ministry) is watertight as far as leaks of information to spy networks are concerned,” Papandreou said.

U.S. officials and Greek conservative opposition leader Constantine Mitsotakis alleged after the arrest of the three people in September that Bokhan had named officials of the Athens government as spies for Moscow.

The government poured scorn on these suggestions, as well as on reports from Washington in conservative Greek newspapers that Bokhan had named at least 18 Greeks as spies for the Soviet Union, including prominent journalists.

In today’s speech, Papandreou contrasted what he called the minor dimensions of the Greek spy affair with the fact that “very senior representatives of the Atlantic Alliance in (West) Germany have moved over to the other camp.”