Iranian generals held

Press, 14 July 1980, Page 6

Iranian generals held

NZPA-Reuter • Teheran A former Iranian Air Force chief and a former head of the national gendarmerie have been arrested in connection wi ’■> a coup conspiracy against the Iranian leader. Ayatolla Ruhollah Khomeiny, and the Government, revolutionary officials have said. Teheran press reports said Air Force General Said Mehdivan and gendarmerie General Ahmad Mohaqeqi had been arrested after President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr went on television last week to reveal that the authorities had discovered an anti-Gov-ernment plot. The reports were later j confirmed by an official at j the office of Hojatoleslam! Mohammadi Reyshahri, chief of the Islamic military court. He said that the two generals had been responsible for drawing up plans for an uprising, and said the pair] were being detained at an! undisclosed location. j Mr Ali Garmarudi, al spokesman for President’ Bani-Sadr, said seven people!

had uied and nearly 100 had been detained over the coup attempt. But Mr Garmarudi said it was not clear how many people ; ere involved in the plot, and refused to give the exact number of those arrested. He said the Nouzheh air base, near Hamadan in ’-•estern Iran, was the only Air Force centre to figure in the plot. Mr Garmarudi said people in other parts of the country had been involved, all but two of them military personnel. i In last week’s television! broadcast, Mr Bani-Sadr said! the conspiracy was backed] by the United States, Israel,] and Iraq, and was aimed at] bringing back into power Shafipour Baktiar, the deposed Shah's last Prime Minister. It was said to include plans to bomb The home of Ayatollah Khomeiny. as well I as targets in Teheran and] the holy city r Qom. I Asked y iterday if anyone] had yet been executed,' Mr 1

j Garmarudi said: 1 don t, 'think so.” I ; Meanwhile Agence France-i ; Presse reports that Iranian ! leaders have called for full political and religious mobilisation after the announcement of the “plot.” In Qom, the theological college issued a communique calling “on Muslim people to , praise almighty God by shouting ‘Allah o akbar’ (God is great) for 15 minutes today at 10 p.m. local time, and so thank (God) for having foiled the plot hatched up by the United States and traitors from the former regime.” The Theological College — , which is home to Ayatollah Hussein Montazeri, the pre- , sumed successor to religious'] leader Ayatollah Khomeiny j — seemed set. on getting full mileage out of the plot an- . nouncement which came a few days before the Rama-1] dan celebrations. [ The Navy’s commander-in- 1 chief said yesterday that his ' force was above suspicion, but called for a “drastic < purge” in the Air Force. . c