World : Czechs Arrest Rights Spokesman

Communist authorities today arrested a spokesman from the Charter 77 human rights group, a dissident said, one day after a co-founder of the group was sentenced to nine months in jail.

Tomas Hradilek was detained in his hometown of Lipnik nad Becvou, 200 miles east of Prague, and charged with inciting rebellion and damaging Czechoslovakia’s image, said dissident Anna Sabatova. If convicted, Hradilek could be imprisoned up to five years, Sabatova said. The charges are based on two letters he wrote last month to Communist Party chief Milos Jakes and to President Gustav Husak protesting the violence police used to break up peaceful gatherings in Prague.