Moscow Frees Prominent Couple, 6 Other Dissidents, Bonner Reports

Eight more Soviet dissidents, including two prominent dissenters of the late 1970s, have been freed, Yelena Bonner said Monday night.

Bonner, wife of Nobel peace laureate and physicist Andrei D. Sakharov, told reporters by telephone that three of the eight were freed Monday and five others late last week.

She said the latest releases bring to 86 the number of dissidents freed since she and her husband were allowed to return to Moscow from internal exile in Gorky in December.

Soviet officials have said that about 150 dissenters jailed in the 1970s and early 1980s were being released and about 150 more cases were under study.

Among those freed last week were Ivan Kovalyov and Tanya Osipov, a husband and wife who were serving sentences for anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda after playing a prominent role in publicizing alleged Soviet human rights abuses. Both were told they could emigrate, Bonner said.

The three freed Monday were Galina Barats, who was serving a nine-year sentence; Alexei Smirnov, who was serving 10 years in labor camp and exile, and Mikhail Rifkin, serving 12 years--all on charges of anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda.