Indonesia expels Soviet airline chief

Indonesia has banned all flights of the Soviet airline Aeroflot to the country and deported its local chief for alleged espionage, a government official said.

Alexander Finenko, who Western diplomats say is a senior officer in the Soviet military intelligence, went on hunger strike after being arrested Feb. 6, and was deported Feb. 13 for health reasons, the offical said. The closure followed street demonstrations here denouncing alleged Soviet spying and a call by the country's civil aviation trade union for a ban on Soviet flights.

Mr. Finenko was to have been put on trial for subversion along with an Indonesian naval officer who was said to have been caught passing secret documents to expelled Soviet military attache Col. Sergei Egorov in a Jakarta restaurant, the government said.