State Department Expresses Deep Concern over Treason Charge Against Sharansky; Says Vance Raised Iss

The State Department said today that it was “deeply concerned” about the report from the Soviet Union that Anatoly Sharansky, a leading Moscow Jewish activist, has been charged with treason. Department spokesman John Trattner said that “Sharansky is well-known and respected in the United States for his efforts on behalf of human rights.”

Department officials said that Secretary of State Cyrus Vance has raised the issue of Sharansky with Soviet authorities at “a very senior level.” The Department said “our concern” has been made known to the Soviets “through diplomatic channels. Neither level of authority was identified.

Trattner indicated that the U.S. has been in contact with Soviet authorities about Sharansky since the 29-year-old computer specialist was arrested in Moscow March 15 shortly after an Izvestia article accused him of working for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Sharansky was linked at the time with two officials at the American Embassy in Moscow, both Jews. They are Joseph Presel a career foreign service officer who is a First Secretary at the Embassy and Melvin Levitsky, Presel’s predecessor who is now in Washington. Trattner, responding to questions, said that “if charges, should be made against our employees, they will be dealt with as they arise.”

CONGRESSMEN PROTEST TO BREZHNEV

Meanwhile, 24 Congressmen have signed a letter drafted by Rep. Sidney Yates (D. III.) to Soviet Communist Party Secretary Leonid Brezhnev protesting “in the strongest possible terms” the moves to put Sharansky on trial for treason. The letter said “better cooperation between our governments will be fostered” if Sharansky is allowed to emigrate to Israel. Sharansky’s wife is already in Israel where she was allowed to emigrate immediately after the couple was married.

If Sharansky is put on trial for treason, which carries a death penalty, it will be the first such trial since the Leningrad hijack trial in 1970.

In another development, B’nai B’rith urged the United States to denounce the Soviet action against Sharansky. David M. Blumberg, B’nai B’rith president, said in a telegram to President Carter that the Soviet government–by this and other “acts of commission and omission” since signing the Helsinki accord two years ago–has “pronounced a verdict on its own performance: disdain for a solemn international agreement and denial of basic human rights.”

Richard Maass, president of the American Jewish Committee called the Soviet charge of “treason” leveled at Sharansky “another manifestation of the crude hate campaign against Jews, Judaism, Zionism and Israel” being waged by the Soviet Union. He said the action was the “latest in a series of attempts by the Soviet government to crack down on Jewish activists as well as on that group which has been monitoring the events in the Soviet Union in light of the Helsinki agreement.”