Grad Student Convicted By Polish Court

A Harvard graduate student was found guilty. Saturday of assaulting a Polish border guard, but the student's sentence was suspended and he will be permitted to leave the country.

Andrew Field, who was a teaching fellow in Slavic Languages and Literature last year, could have received a jail term of up to seven years. Instead, a three-judge court in Lublin, Poland, fined him 250 slotys ($10.40) and gave him an eight-mouth suspended sentence.

The court acquitted Field on a second charge of using "abusive and offensive language" in an argument with the guard.

Released on Bail

Field was arrested Jan. 22 at the Polish-East German border and held for ten days before being released on $3000 bail posted by his parents through the U.S. embassy in Warsaw. His 25-year-old wife Audrey, was permitted to continue on to Berlin and returned to Poland last week for the trial.

The charges arose from an argument Jan. 21 between Field and Lt. Jan Knap, a border guard, when Field and his wife were traveling to Parts from Moscow, where he had been studying Russian literature. The guard questioned the validity of Field's transit visa, which according to court testimony had been filled out incorrectly by Polish embassy officials in Moscow.

"Linguietie Misunderstanding"

The indictment charged that Field grabbed the guard's lapels and cursed him. Although Field admitted shaking the officer in the heat of the argument he claimed that the dispute was merely a "linguistic misunderstanding."

Field, whose trial lasted nine hours, will leave Poland Saturday and return to Cambridge after a few week's stay with friends in London.