In a dramatic bid to aid jailed Soviet Jewish dissidents, Israeli Knesset member Samuel Flat to Sharon is seeking to arrange for the exchange of such prisoners in return for Communist spies or political prisoners jailed in the West, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency learned last week. The USSR is understood to have hinted–via an East German intermediary–that it is willing to carry out such deals.
The go-between is the prominent East German lawyer, Wolfgang Vogel, who helped arrange the famous exchange between jailed Chilean Communist leader Luis Carvallo and Soviet prisoner Vladimir Bukovsky. He has also secured the release of hundreds of East German political prisoners and their right to emigrate to West Germany in return for cash payments by the West German government. One of those Sharon is seeking to aid is Anatoly Shcharansky. (By Jon Fedler)
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