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United Civil Front Activist Allowed To Meet Husband At Mental Health Clinic

MURMANSK/MOSCOW. August 6 (Interfax) - Larisa Arap of the Murmansk branch of the United Civil Front, who was allegedly taken by force into a mental health institution, was given the chance to meet with her husband on Monday.

"Larisa's husband and I met her at the clinic in Apatity. She looked perfectly normal with adequate reaction, and we noticed no signs she posed any danger to society, which was the pretext of her transfer to the clinic," the leader of the Murmansk branch of the organization, Yelena Vasilyeva, told Interfax on Monday.

Arap could soon be sent to a rehabilitation center, she said.

"There is an impression that the doctors are looking for a dignified way out of this situation. Whenever we asked them why Larisa was brought to the clinic by force, they gave evasive answers or asked their own questions," she said.

The United Civil Front thinks that Arap was interned for her political activity.

A special issue of the newspaper March of Dissenters recently published Arap's article entitled "Durdom" (Psychiatric Clinic), which commented on the methods used by the Murmansk psychiatric clinic to treat children and teenagers.

Arap was brought to the hospital from a Severomorsk polyclinic she visited on July 5 in order to receive the copy of a medical certificate for a driving license.