Ukrainian 'rights' activist draws a stiff sentence

Ukrainian human-rights activist Vasil Stus was sentenced to 10 years' "special regime" in a labor camp and five years' internal exile, one of the toughest sentences passed on a Soviet dissident. The poet and member of the group monitoring Soviet compliance with the human-rights accord signed at the 1975 European Security Conference in Helsinki was given the severe sentence because of a previous conviction for anti-Soviet slander in 1972. Prisoners under "special regime" serve their sentences in cells with little contact with other inmates.