The World - News from July 11, 1988

Protesters picketed Soviet Estonia’s Supreme Court for at least six days last week to demand the release of an arrested nationalist, the Estonian Communist Party newspaper Sovetskaya Estonia said. The demonstrators called for the release of Estonian nationalist Sivert Zholdin and two other prisoners, M. Niklus and E. Tarto. Niklus was subsequently freed, the newspaper said, but it did not say when Niklus and Tarto had been arrested or what the charges against them were. The Soviet Tass news agency reported Zholdin’s arrest on Feb. 2, saying he was associated with “nationalist elements” and had been charged with distributing anti-state literature.