Reports of Imminent Freeing of Shcharansky in Spy Swap is Discounted by His Wife

— Avital Shcharansky, wife of Prisoner of Conscience Anatoly Shcharansky, said today that she placed little credence in press reports from South Africa that her husband is to be freed shortly in exchange for an alleged Soviet spy, Alexei Kozlov, captured in South Africa last year.

She said rumors of his release had been frequent but he was still in a Soviet labor camp serving the fourth year of a 13-year term on charges of treason, spying and anti-Soviet subversion. She said she hoped for his speedy release and arrival in Israel but added that no advance information is usually given out.

She noted that the first news of Yosef Mendelevich’s release was when he was already on the plane on his way to Vienna. Mendelevich, the last Jewish imprisoned 1970 Leningrad hijack defendant, arrived in Vienna Feb. 18 after his unexpected release from a prison camp in the Soviet Union and arrived several hours later in Israel where he was united with his mother and sisters. He had served II years of a 12-year sentence.

REPORT SHCHARANSKY IMPRISONED IN LABOR CAMP

Meanwhile, Avital has received the first information in weeks about her husband from his mother, Ida Milgrom. In a telephone call from Moscow where Mrs. Milgrom resides, she told Avital that Anatoly stated in a letter to his brother Leonid that he could not have any visits from either his mother or brother for the remainder of 1981 since all meetings scheduled for this year have been cancelled.

Mrs. Milgrom said Anatoly had been placed in prison in the labor camp in the Urals where he is serving his term, that his food allotment has been cut in half and that his correspondence has been limited. She said Anatoly had been imprisoned in the camp at least a month ago, but Mendelevich and other recently freed Prisoners of Conscience who had served in the same labor camp did not know why Shcharansky was imprisoned and for how long.