MOSCOW -- Human rights activist Tatyana Osipova went on trial Tuesday on charges of anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda, but defended her actions, said the official Tass news agency.
Miss Osipova, 32, in custody for 10 months, was a member of the group monitoring Soviet compliance with the Helsinki human rights accords.
Tass said she tried to defend her actions and indicated she had pleaded innocent. Miss Osipova 'tried to present things in such a way that she does not see anything unlawful in her activities,' Tass said.
The news agency said that she was 'acting for the purposes of undermining and weakening Soviet power' from 1978-80, sending statements abroad 'in which the Soviet reality was malignantly distorted.'
Her husband, Ivan Kovalev, was allowed in the courtroom, but friends were barred and Kovalev was prevented from taking notes.
'Yes, I understand that in an open court it's forbidden to write things down,' Kovalev told the judge. He said he was also told not to converse in court after the judge noticed him smiling at his wife.
Kovalev said he expected the trial to last until Thursday and said the maximum sentence his wife could expect was 12 years in prison or labor camp.
Tass said Miss Osipova did not deny that 'foreign-made writing pads for making self-erasing notes' were found in her possession or that her activities were publicized by the Western press.
The former computer specialist was one of the few remaining members of the Helsinki monitoring group who had not been jailed. She joined the small group of dissidents in 1977, and friends credit her with participating in some 100 reports on Soviet abuses of human rights.