Iranians free ailing hostage
NZPA-Reuter Teheran A Swiss Air jet carrying a.. American Embassy hostage, Richard Queen, left Teheran Mehrabad Airport for Zurich early x .terday. The office of the revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeiny, said on Thursday that the Ayatollah had issued instructions for Mr Queen, aged 28, the Embassy vice-con-sul, to be released into his family’s care for medical reasons. Mr Queen was admitted to a Teheran hospital, apparently for psychiatric treatment, three days ago. An aide of President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr said that Mr Queen had "problems in his head.’’ . Student militants seized the United States Embassy .and took hostages on November 4 last year. They
released 13 women and blacks, as well as nonAmericans, a few weeks later. Mr Queen is the first hostage to be released since then. There was no indication of where he had been held before his transfer to hospital. The hostages’ captors say that they have dispersed them round Iran after the abortive United State- commando raid to free them late in April. “He was in fair condition and wide awake,’’ said a. presidential aide, Mr Saeed Sanjabi, after accompanying Mr Queen from hospital to Teheran Airport. Mr Sanjabi, senior foreign affairs adviser to President Bani-Sadr, said that the American was able to walk unassisted. “I went on board and
asked him if he felt up to the flight, and he replied, ‘Yes, I do’.” Mr Quee:. was a tall,', robust man who looked in good shape physically,, said Mr Sanjabi. Mr Queen, interviewed before he boarded the aircraft, said that he was nqt sure what his ailment; was, but believed -it was “something with the brain, some sort of virus or something.” In Anchorage, Alaska; President Carter called on Iran to free all its 53 American hostages without delay. “Obviously the proper thing for the terrorists to do is release all the hostages, because they are innocent and deserve to be with their families,” Mr Carter said. ‘Plot to topple Govt foiled,’ Page 8
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Press, 12 July 1980, Page 1
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333Iranians free ailing hostage Press, 12 July 1980, Page 1
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