RELEASE OF DISSIDENT CAME MONTHS LATER THAN HOPED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000606090002-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 27, 2010
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: May 14, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-0055
WASHINGTON TIMES
14 May 1986
Release of dissident came
months later than hoped
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
U.S. officials hoped to win the release of
Soviet dissident Anatoly Shcharansky in a spy
swap last June, but the exchange was delayed
until February, according to a senior adminis-
tration official.
President Reagan met with Mr.
Shcharansky at the White House yesterday
day for what presidential aides described as
a private conversation.
The senior official, who asked not be
named, said State and Justice Department
negotiators tried to free Mr. Shcharansky in
a Berlin prisoner exchange on June 11, 1985.
That swap brought 25 Eastern Europeans im-
prisoned in East Germany and Poland to the
West in exchange for four East Europeans
being held in the United States on espionage
charges.
The East bloc agents faced prison terms of
between 25 years and life, and some had been
sentenced only three months before the ex-
change.
"We were looking to do Shcharansky then,
but it didn't go through," said the official.
"Shcharansky in February was kind of a posi-
tive footnote in the deal."
Intelligence sources said that the June and
Februa exchanges, both of which occurred
on the Glienecker Bridge separating East and
es Berlin, were preceded by a flurry of
counterespionage activities to close down spy
networks.
"We were rolling up some of their folks
while they were rolling up some of ours as the
negotiations were going on," one source said.
The official did not explain why the Soviets
refused to release Mr. Shcharansky in June.
But other sources said the Soviets delayed
the release for propaganda purposes until
after the Geneva summit in November. The
Soviets also objected to State Department de-
mands that Mr. Shcharansky's release occur
separately from the release of two Germans
and a Czech national held in East German
jails on espionage charges, the sources said.
Mr. Shcharansky spent nine years in Soviet
prisons and labor camps on charges of anti-
Soviet activities and espionage. His release
Feb. 11 was the culmination of three years of
East-West negotiations.
According to the senior official, East Ger-
man lawyer Wolfgang Vogel, who is closely
linked to Communist Party officials in East
Germany and the Soviet Union, played a ma-
jor role in arranging the Shcharansky re-
lease.
"Vogel has great credibility with [East Ger-
man leader Erich] Honecker and apparently
the Soviets;' the official said. "He came to the
U.S. in connection with the exchange nego-
tiations and visited the four who went out in
June of 1985. He also came to the U.S. prior to
the February trade and visited [Czech spies
Karl and Hana Koecher]."
The official described Mr. Vogel as "a
shrewd, hard-nosed lawyer who looks after
his client's interests" Mr. Vogel was permitted
to visit the East bloc spies in the United States,
but he warned U.S. officials against visiting
the East bloc prisoners.
"We asked to do the same thing over there
... and he said 'they [the prisoners] won't
believe you, they'll think it's a jGB trick to
get them to talk, and he was right;' said the
official. "The people we got out didn't know
they were being released until they came to
the bridge that day and we went on the bus
and said, ' We're Americans, the president has
sent us and we're here to get you out."'
The Koechers, naturalized U.S. citizens,
had been awaiting trial in New York on es-
pionage charges. Before the exchange, Mr.
Koecher, a former CIA consultant, and his
wife were required to renounce their U.S. citi-
zenship.
The official described as "ironic" how Mrs.
Koecher prepared for her return: "She's got
this beautiful mink coat on and matching pink
hat, and here she's going into the workers'
paradise."
"We knew that that mink and hat would end
up on the back of some Soviet commissar's
wife as soon as she crossed the border."
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000606090002-0