Panama to consider bid to extradite Shah

Panama says it will consider a request from Iran to extradite the deposed Shah but denied reports from Tehran the deposed monarch had been arrested. In a telegram sent Wednesday to the Iranian Revolutionary Council, President Aristides Royo said, "Mr. Muhammad Reza Pahlavi remains under the care of Panamanian security authorities." A presidential spokesman said the telegram was in response to a provisional-arrest request by the Islamic government received earlier this month.

Asked for a clarification of the telegram, the spokesman said it meant that the ousted ruler "is not under arrest. The Shah is under the protection of the Panamanian government but, I repeat, not under arrest."