Plea for Soviet dissident in Geneva

The wife of imprisoned Soviet dissident Anatoly Shcharansky, who met US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Burt here Sunday, says she is confident her husband's plight will be raised at the US-Soviet arms talks. ``They [US negotiators] promised to do their best,'' she said, after meeting with Mr. Burt.

A US statement issued here said Burt told Mrs. Shcharansky that President Reagan and Secretary of State George Shultz share her concern. ``Mr. Burt assured her that, as is always the case, the US raises human-rights concerns with the Soviet Union,'' it said.

Shcharansky was one of the leaders of the Soviet human-rights movement in the 1970s and also campaigned on behalf of Jews wishing to emigrate. He was sentenced to 13 years' imprisonment in 1977 on charges of spying for the US.

Mrs. Shcharansky said Monday that Soviet authorities had told the family her husband had been hospitalized but would give no details of his condition. A top Soviet official had told Shcharansky's mother on Dec. 27 in Moscow that he had been sent to a hospital but declined to give details of his whereabouts or his condition, Mrs. Shcharansky said.