Shcharansky Part of Planned Prisoner Trade, Sources Say

An East-West prisoner exchange will be made next week on a Berlin bridge, a Western government source said today, and the word in Israel was that it includes Soviet Jewish dissident Anatoly Shcharansky, who is to be swapped for 12 East Bloc agents along with perhaps one other person held by the Soviets.

The source in Bonn said the swap was arranged by U.S., Soviet and West German officials. Officials in Bonn and Washington refused comment on newspaper reports that such a swap was in the making, and White House spokesman Larry Speakes said: “We will have no comment, period. Top to bottom, no comment.”

Israel radio said the United States had informed Israel that Shcharansky would be freed in three days as part of an East-West prisoner swap. It said the Reagan Administration sent a message about the plan to Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir.

An Israeli official in Jerusalem, speaking privately, said the deal involved 12 prisoners held in Western countries to be exchanged for Shcharansky and perhaps one other person held by the Soviets.

Shcharansky’s wife, Avital, who has traveled worldwide to campaign for her husband’s release, was not at her Jerusalem home today and appeared to be in hiding. The radio said she would meet her husband in West Germany.

The Bonn source, who is in a position to know the details of such an exchange, said it will take place Feb. 11 on the Glienicke Bridge linking Potsdam in East Germany with West Berlin. It will involve spies and East Bloc dissidents, he said, speaking on condition that his name and nationality not be revealed.

Shcharansky Involved

Bild, a Hamburg newspaper, reported the exchange plan in today’s editions and said Shcharansky was involved. The source in Bonn would not comment on whether the Jewish dissident would be included.

Shcharansky, 37, was a leader of the Soviet human rights movement in the 1970s. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison after being convicted in 1978 on charges, which he denied, of passing intelligence to foreign countries.

Previous reports that Shcharansky might be traded for captured Soviet spies have not panned out.

Bild said Soviet Bloc agents--it did not specify how many--would be exchanged for Shcharansky and 12 former East Bloc undercover agents. The mass-circulation paper quoted “ranking Soviet sources.”

8 to 10 Involved

The New York Times quoted unnamed U.S. government officials today as saying U.S. and Soviet officials had agreed to an exchange including Shcharansky and seven to nine other people.

Bild said the trade was arranged in “months of negotiations” and described it as one of the biggest of its kind.

It said the Soviet Bloc agents imprisoned in West Germany and the United States would be released to Soviet and East German authorities. Former agents for West Germany would be freed from East German prisons, Bild said.

West German officials said a Bild report last autumn had wrecked negotiations for a similar swap.