In May 1972, Leonid Plyushch (see CCE 24.3) was sent to Moscow for a psychiatric examination. A number of facts oblige one to suppose that the diagnosis of the commission of experts has been determined in advance. One such fact was adduced in a statement by the Action Group for the Defence of Human Rights in the USSR, in connection with the arrest of Plyushch (see CCE 24.3).
There is another fact: as early as February an employee of the KGB called Sur declared to a witness, F. A. Didenko, that the KGB was in possession of a letter written by Plyushch’s mother, in which she spoke of her son’s ‘‘oddities”: in reality, however, no letter of the kind existed!
On 4 June Plyushch’s wife T.I. Zhitnikova sent a statement to the Procurator of the Ukrainian Republic, informing him of the facts of the tendentious, prosecution-like approach of the investigators to her husband’s case.
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From 6 to 23 May Vasyl Stus (see CCE 24.3) was under examination in the Pavlov Psychiatric Hospital in Kiev. The diagnosis of the commission of experts: character displays certain psychopathic traits, but of sound mind. Stus s cast is being conducted by investigator V.I. Lubenets. A charge was brought initially under Article 187-1 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code (corresponding to Article 190-1 of the Russian Code); then it was reclassified under [the more severe] Article 62 of the Ukrainian Code (Article 70 of the Russian).
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In March, Gilyaev, [1] who participated in the hijacking of an aircraft from the Crimea to Turkey, was in the Pavlov Psychiatric Hospital in Kiev. A diagnostic commission found Gilyayev of sound mind. Gilyayev’s case is being conducted by the Ukrainian KGB. He has apparently been charged with betrayal of the fatherland and stealing state property.
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Yury Shukhevych (see CCE 24, 25) has been charged under Article 70 pt. 2 of the Russian Criminal Code. The investigation is being conducted by the KGB of the Kabardino-Balkarskaya Autonomous Republic [N. Caucasus]. The investigator is Major Kashezhev. After three months of investigation Shukhevych was transferred to Kiev, but soon he was sent back to Nalchik since, to all appearances, no evidence was discovered linking Shukhevych with Ukrainian cases. The address of Shukhevych’s wife, Valentina [N.] Trotsenko: Nalchik, 83 Sovetskaya St., flat 13. They have two children — Roman (b. 1970) and Ira (b. 1972).
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NOTES
[1] Pravda (30 December 1971) gives his name as Nikolai F. Gilev, b. 1949. With a fellow-student, Vitaly M. Pozdeyev, Gilev (or Gilyayev) hi-jacked a five-seater Aeroflot plane on 27 October 1970. See the New York Times, 28 October 1970.
NYT, 21 December 1971, and Pravda, 30 December 1971, reported their voluntary return from Turkey to the USSR on 20 December. Agency reports from Moscow (15 September 1972) announced the sentencing of Pozdeyev to 13 years and Gilev to 10 years.
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