‘IRANIAN TORTURED’

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32209, 30 January 1970, Page 13

‘IRANIAN TORTURED’

(N.Z.PA.-Reuter—Copyright) An attache at the At attache at the Iranian Embassy in Iraq said in Teheran yesterday that he was kidnapped at gunpoint on the eve of the discovery of last week’s alleged anti-Government plot in Bagdad and beaten and tortured all night. His captors wanted to get him to sign documents saying that Iran had supplied arms to the plotters, he said. The attache, Mr Abdolkhalegh Boushehrizadeh, said at a press conference that his captors seized him on Tues; day last week and told him he would be “killed in a car accident” if he refused to sign. Mr Boushehrizadeh said that he was finally forced to sign the documents, which

also called on him to pledge cooperation with Iraq’s ruling Ba’Athist regime and “to co-operate” in over-throwing the Iranian Government

He was freed next morning and went straight to the Embassy to report to the Ambassador. He arrived back in Teheran on Tuesday. Iran, which has denied accusations from Iraq of having planned the plot to overthrow the Government of President Ahmed Hassan Bakr, has strongly protested to Bagdad over the illtreatment, detention, questioning and torture of Mr Boushehrizadeh, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

He said that Iran had sent a Note holding the Iraqi Government responsible for the consequences of the action, describing it as against the principles of international relations, diplomatic etiqufette and the provisions of the Vienna convention.

Iran had previously protested against the illtreatment of the Charge d’Affaires in Iraq.

The Iranian Ambassador and four members of his staff —the military attache, his assistant, the commercial attache and the Third Secre-

tary—were declared personae non gratae last week and expeUed from Iraq. Iran retaliated by expelling the Iraqi Ambassador and four other diplomats.

Discovery of the alleged plot was announced in Bagdad on Wednesday of last week and 37 politicians and military men were subsequently hanged or shot Seven others accused of spying for the United States were executed over the same period.