State asks probation for Soviet dissident

A prosecutor has asked for a sentence of five years' probation in the criminal trial of Lev Regelson, a Russian Orthodox activist accused of anti-Soviet activities. Mr. Regelson confessed guilt on the first day of the trial, but the request for a sentence with no call for prison or a term of internal exile came as a surprise, the dissident's friends said. A verdict will be delivered Wednesday.

In another court, Vyacheslav Bakhmin, a computer programmer, is on trial for publishing materials on alleged Soviet abuse of psychiatric treatment. Mr. Bakhmin was a founding member of the Working Committee on Psychiatry investigating suspected abuses.