A French lecturer and two Iranian employees of the British and French embassies unexpectedly appeared among defendants in a mass trial hearing in an Iranian court on Saturday.
Along with about 10 other people, they faced charges linked to protests that followed the re-election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 12 presidential election, Iranian news agencies said.
The French foreign ministry called for the “immediate release” of the lecturer and the embassy staff member, while British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the trial was the “latest Iranian provocation.”
PHOTO: REUTERS
French academic Clotilde Reiss, who turned 24 in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison on July 31, was arrested on July 1 as she tried to fly home.
“She is accused of collecting information and provoking rioters,” the prosecution was quoted as saying as Reiss, wearing blue jeans, dark coat and a colorful scarf, sat in the front row with a policewoman alongside.
Fellow defendant Nazak Afshar, from the French embassy’s cultural section, was also in court. The hearing was not open to foreign media.
State TV said both Reiss and Afshar played an “active role in the unrest by giving information to foreign embassies.”
IRNA news agency said Reiss admitted reporting on post-election protests in the central city of Isfahan.
“I wrote a one-page report and submitted it to ... the cultural department of the French embassy,” it quoted her as telling the judge.
“I was planning to leave Iran, but I took part in rallies of June 15 and 17 in Tehran and took photographs and film. I did this out of curiosity and to be aware of the political situation. I wanted to know what was happening,” she said.
ISNA news agency quoted Reiss as saying she sent e-mails about the demonstrations to friends and family members.
The report quoted her as telling the judge: “I ask Iran, its people and the court to forgive me. I hope I will be pardoned.”
Afshar told the court that she and other staffers had been told to shelter post-election protesters, IRNA said.
“In the event that confrontations occurred in front of the cultural department of the embassy, we were told to offer refuge to protesters if they asked,” Afshar said.
Also facing charges was British embassy local staffer Hossein Rassam, who was detained in Tehran along with eight embassy colleagues. They were later freed, while he was released on bail. IRNA said he was accused of spying.
“You along with Arash Momenian were given the duty of meeting representatives of political groups, ethnic and religious minorities, and student groups and to relay the news of Iran’s riots to London,” the news agency quoted the prosecutor as saying.
Rassam was quoted as telling the court: “The victory of Mr Ahmadinejad was shocking for the British embassy, and in our first report to London we stressed claims made by one candidate about fraud” in the election.
He was reported as saying that British diplomats, including two expelled later, had attended protests in Tehran and that “the ambassador along with the charge d’affaires took part in witnessing a rally of Mousavi supporters.”
Both Ahmadinejad’s main challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi, and reformist former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami have denounced the trials.
The EU presidency urged Iran to release Reiss, Afshar and Rassam soon, calling their trial an act against the whole EU.
“Actions against one EU country, citizen or embassy staff is considered an action against all of EU, and will be treated accordingly,” the Swedish EU presidency said in a statement.
Miliband said Rassam’s trial was the “latest Iranian provocation” since the disputed presidential election and he was “deeply concerned by the unjustified charges.”
The French foreign ministry called for the “immediate release” of Reiss and Afshar, saying the charges against Reiss were “devoid of any foundation” and those against Afshar were “non-existent.”
In France, Reiss’s father Remi was taken unawares by her appearance in court.
“I had not been told. I was surprised to see her appear at this trial,” he said, adding that he believes she is innocent.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver
RSS