BRIEF ON IRAN No. 405 Friday, May 3, 1996 Representative Office of The National Council of Resistance of Iran 3421 M Street NW #1032 Washington, DC 20007 Forcible Return, Fear for Safety, Amnesty International, April 30 [The following is excerpts from and Urgent Action Communiqué] Amnesty International is concerned for the safety of Mehrdad Kavousi, an Iranian asylum-seeker in Turkey, who was arrested by Turkish police in Agri, eastern Turkey, on 25 April 1996 and forcibly returned to Iran on the same day. His current whereabouts are unknown.... He is reported to have been imprisoned previously [for 10 years] and tortured in Iran for his political activities... At the time of his arrest, he had gone to the police to register as an asylum-seeker, in the company of a lawyer from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Amnesty International is calling on the Iranian authorities to ensure Mehrdad Kavousi's safety and to account for his whereabouts. It is also concerned that the Turkish authorities are violating Turkey's obligations under international law not to expel people to countries where they are at risk of serious human rights violations. Iranian Asylum-Seeker Extradited, Iranians Protest, German News Agency, DPA, May 2 On Tuesday, about 500 exiled Iranians protested against the extradition of a Resistance's supporter [Mehrdad Kavousi] in front of Turkish Embassy in Bonn. NCR reported that the 36-year old Iranian, five days ago requested asylum in border city of Agri, but Turkish authorities extradited him to Iran. The protesters demanded safe exit of Mr. Kavousi from Iran. Mullahs' Militants Protest Against Women's Cycling, Associated Press, May 2 TEHRAN- Militant Muslims who advocate banning women from riding bicycles attacked cyclists at the only complex in the Iranian capital where women and men can both pedal, a newspaper reported Thursday. Militants who belong to the state-run volunteer militia also attacked the Chitgar sports complex's director and staff and ransacked the center Monday, the Akhbar newspaper reported. Police called to the scene did not intervene in scuffles between the militants and cyclists of both sexes, it said.... Some hardline publications like the Jomhuri Islami have launched scathing attacks on Iran's sports officials.... Islamic scholars in the city of Qom, Iran's seat of religious learning, say women should abstain from cycling in public because it is "indecent" and "provocative." Ever since the 1979 Islamic revolution brought a clerical government to power, women in Iran must be covered from head to toe in public as Muslim religious law dictates. Women cyclists obey that edict, wearing both a headscarf and a loose smock.... In a veiled attack Tuesday on Rafsanjani, the hard-line speaker of the parliament, Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri, called on the volunteer militia and the army to quash "liberal tendencies" that endanger Iran's revolutionary ideology. Iran Army to Hold Biggest War Games, Reuters, May 2 TEHRAN - Iranian army ground and air units will soon hold their largest yet war games south of Tehran, the official news agency IRNA said on Thursday.... The aim of the maneuvers is "to display part of the strength of the Iranian ground forces," IRNA quoted an army statement as saying. The statement said they would be held near the holy city of Qom, 120 km (75 miles) south of Tehran, but it did not give an exact date for the exercises.... Rafsanjani Admits Mullahs' Intervention in Lebanon, Agence France Presse, May 2 TEHRAN - IRNA quoted Rafsanjani, who was giving a speech in city of Shiraz (southern Iran) on Wednesday, as saying "Americans in the past and on several occasions have bowed to Iranian people's willpower. What happened in Lebanon is the last defeat of U.S. and Israel" by Iran. Rafsanjani added: "The just struggle of Lebanese people once again showed that despite what U.S. says, Iran is not isolated whatsoever. On the contrary, it has a priceless role in establishing the peace in the region."