Iranian students claim Bani-Sadr link to CIA

The students who occupied the US Embassy in Tehran for 444 days claim they have evidence linking fugitive former President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr to the CIA, Monitor special correspondent James Dorsey reports. They told a Tehran newspaper they had pieced together 11 telegrams found in the US Embassy linking Mr. Bani-Sadr to the CIA in the period before he was elected President.

Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, asked the students in April 1980 not to publish this material. His suppression of the onslaught on Bani-Sadr came at a time when the President was involved in one of many attempts to achieve the release of the US hostages. But now that the ousted President is being threatened with a revolutionary trial, Ayatollah Khomeini has given the students permission to go public. Diplomats believe that with the linking of Bani-Sadr to the CIA the outcome of a possib le trial is a foregone conclusion.