Tourists Reportedly Abducted in Iran

Kidnappers seized four European tourists and an Iranian from a dining room at a hotel in central Iran, a witness and the official Iranian news agency said Sunday.

The tourists--three Spaniards and an Italian--and the Iranian were abducted Saturday night in Kerman, 550 miles southeast of Tehran, the official Islamic Republic News Agency, or IRNA, said.

Neither the identities nor the motive of the kidnappers was known, the agency said. This is at least the third mysterious attack on foreigners in Iran this year.

In Tehran, meanwhile, it was reported that seven top security officials and a group of hard-line vigilantes are to stand trial for their role in an attack last month on a student dormitory that left hundreds hurt and at least one person dead and led to riots.

A widely anticipated report by the investigative committee of the Supreme National Security Council said that the seven security officials included Tehran’s police chief and commanders of several special anti-riot police forces.

The report was published by IRNA late Saturday and by newspapers Sunday.

In a related matter, Ayatollah Mohammed Yazdi, the hard-line cleric who until Saturday led Iran’s courts, was named Sunday to a body overseeing elections, IRNA said.