Soviet Dissident Charged with Child Abuse in UK

British prosecutors said Monday they had charged Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky with making and possessing indecent images of children.

Bukovsky, 72, faces a total of 11 charges and will have to attend court next week on May 5, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said in a statement.

"We have concluded that there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest to prosecute Vladimir Bukovsky in relation to the alleged making and possessing of indecent images of children," said Jenny Hopkins, a chief crown prosecutor for the CPS.

Bukovsky was first arrested by Soviet authorities in 1971 for his activism and spent 12 years in prison.

The high-profile Soviet dissident was one of the first to detail the abuse of psychiatric institutions to punish political prisoners, causing an international outcry.

In 1976 he was exchanged by the Soviet government for the Chilean Communist Party leader Luis Corvalan and moved to Britain, settling in Cambridge.

He has been hugely critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin and accused Russia of orchestrating the radiation poisoning death of former spy Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006.