Soviets Free Psychiatrist; Begun Expected Out Today

Psychiatrist Anatoly Koryagin came home Thursday after five years in a labor camp, and officials said Jewish activist Josef Begun will be out of prison today, nearly a week after his release was first announced.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady I. Gerasimov reported the releases at a news briefing. Begun and Koryagin, who had accused authorities of putting sane dissidents in psychiatric hospitals, were among the most prominent dissidents still held, but other well-known activists remain in prisons or labor camps.

Begun, 55, was still at Chistopol Prison on Thursday.

An Interior Ministry official telephoned Begun’s wife, Inna, on Thursday night and told her to go to the prison, 500 miles east of Moscow, for her husband’s release today.

“I was told my husband will be freed tomorrow, in the second half of the day,” she told a reporter by telephone.

She said she and Boris Begun, the psychiatrist’s son by a previous marriage, would fly to the regional center of Kazan this morning and expects to be at the prison in time for his release.

Parliamentary Pardon

Begun, a teacher of Hebrew, was pardoned Tuesday by a decree of the Supreme Soviet, the nominal national Parliament. He was sentenced in 1983 to seven years in prison for anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda.

A Soviet official had announced his release prematurely in a television interview on CBS last Sunday.

Inna and Boris Begun said other dissidents freed from Chistopol recently told them that Josef Begun is the last remaining prisoner held there for alleged anti-Soviet activity. At least 150 dissidents have been released in the past three weeks, and officials have said an equal number of cases are under review.

Begun’s family and a group of supporters held five days of demonstrations last week that attracted hundreds of onlookers.

Reviewing Other Laws

In addition to reporting releases, Gerasimov has announced that the laws on anti-state slander or agitation and propaganda are being reviewed with the idea of softening them.

Gerasimov announced Tuesday that Koryagin was pardoned last week and would be freed soon from the prison in Kiev to which he was moved last month from a labor camp in the Ural Mountains.

Dissident Yelena Bonner, wife of Andrei D. Sakharov, told reporters that Koryagin arrived home to his family in the Ukrainian city of Kharkov. He was sentenced in 1981.

Koryagin was accused of anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda after making his report about dissidents and mental hospitals.