Dissident engineer arrested in Ukraine

December 19, 1980

Soviet human-rights activist Genrikh Altunian was arrested in the Ukrainian city of Kharkov and charged with spreading anti-Soviet propaganda, dissident sources said. Mr. Altunian, who belonged to the "initiative group" for the defense of human rights in the Soviet Union, has already served three years in a labor camp after conviction for spreading anti-Soviet slander. He faces a maximum sentence of seven years' imprisonment and five years' internal exile if convicted again.