Iranian authorities launch manhunt to find Bani-Sadr

Press, 23 June 1981, Page 8

Iranian authorities launch manhunt to find Bani-Sadr

. NZPA-Reuter Teheran Iran's revolutionary authorities have called for a nationwide manhunt to arrest President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr after the Majlis (Parliament) voted overwhelmingly that he was incompetent to remain in office. A statement broadcast to the nation said the 48-year-old President, who has not been seen for 12 days, was still in Iran and denied foreign reports he had fled the country.

“We ask the whole nation to arrest him.wherever they may see him,*’ said the pro-secutor-general, Ali Qoddousi. Anyone sheltering or helping him would face prosecution. The prosecutor’s statements said Mr Bani-Sadr faced prosecution in connection with “provocation of , (political) groups to resist Segal institutions and the system of the Islamic Republic, and encouraging prisoners to go on hunger strike...”

The dramatic call came three hours after the Majlis voted by 177-to-one to declare Mr Bani-Sadr politically incompetent. The vote allows Ayatollah Khomeiny to dismiss his former protege, who polled 75

per cent in a nationwide ballot last year for Iran's first-ever President. The President's, wife was arrested during violent street clashes on Saturday between supporters and opponents of the missing President, but later released, the State radio said. The official Pars news agency confirmed that the bodies of 21 men and four women had been taken to the Teheran coroner’s . office after Saturday's clashes. The death- toll made the clashes the worst since a similar number were, reported killed 14 months ago during a drive to flush out armed Leftist guerrilla groups from Teheran University.

The Teheran revolutionary prosecutor’s office announced meanwhile that 15 “counterrevolutionaries” arrested in the clashes were executed by firing squad yesterday.' They had been condemned by a revolutionary court. State television, elaborating on the charges against the President, said they related partly to a long-stand-ing investigation into his address to a rally last March 5. Some 45 people were injured at the time in fighting between his supporters and Islamic militants.

If the President is dismissed, his duties will be taken over by a three-man council of the Chief Justice, Majlis Speaker, and Prime Minister. Under Iran's revolutionary Constitution, the panel is charged with arranging newpresidential elections within 50 -days. Opponents of the dominant Islamic Republican Party have questioned the Government's ability to hold presidential elections while the country is at w;ar with Iraq and some areas are torn by civil, unrest. Both the Chief Justice and Majlis Speaker are founder members of the I.R.P. The Prime Minister (Mr Mohammad Ali Rajai) is a supporter of the partv. Meanwhile. Pars has reported that the head of Iran's guerrilla warfare units in the war with Iraq has been killed.

Mustafa Chamran. a former Defence Minister and one of Ayatollah Khomeiny's two representatives on the Supreme Defence Council, was killed in the war zone near Susangerd in Khuzestan province. Pars reported. He had previously been wounded in the leg during the defence of Susangerd.