Soviets give 'rights' watchdog 9-year term

A court sentenced one of the last active members of the dissident "Helsinki" human rights monitoring group to nine years in labor camp and internal exile on a charge of anti-Soviet agitation, his wife reports.

Felix Serebrov, who helped publicize allegations that enforced psychiatric treatment is used to silence Soviet political dissenters, was convicted after a two-day trial.

The Helsinki group, many of whose members have been imprisoned, was set up by dissidents to check on Soviet compliance with human rights provisions of the 1975 European Security Conference accords.