US journalist in Tehran prison

An American woman arrested last week, whose whereabouts had been kept secret despite numerous diplomatic inquiries, is being held at Tehran's Evin Prison, the revolutionary prosecutor, Ayatollah Ali Ghodussi, said Tuesday. Informed sources said Cynthia B. Dwyer, a freelance journalist from Buffalo, N.Y., was transferred to the jail after being interrogated for five days at an Army barracks in central Tehran, now used by a local revolutionary committee. The Foreign Ministry had previously declined to tell the Swiss Embassy, representing US interests in Iran, anything about Mrs. Dwyer except that she was under arrest.

Ayatollah Ghodussi gave no further indication of the allegations agaist Mrs. Dwyer, picked up on May 5 at the Tehran Hilton Hotel by Revolutionary Guards. He did not indicate how long she would remain in detention or whether the authorities were planning to put her on trial. Swiss officials said she arrived in Iran April 14 and was due to leave the country for Turkey the day after she was arrested.

The Ministry of National Guidance, Iran's press and propaganda body, has confirmed that she was properly accredited and carried a valid press card. She was said to be planning to write travel articles for a Buffalo publication called The Humanist.

Mrs. Dwyer's detention came after the arrest of two groups of West German journalists last month, both of whom were held for more than a day before being released and immediately expelled from the country.