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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran | |
| France demands Iran frees arrested academic | |
| 2009-07-08 | |
[Al Arabiya Latest] France called on Monday for the immediate release of a young French academic arrested last week in Iran for espionage as she prepared to board an aircraft and return home. Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said 23-year-old Clotilde Reiss had been working for five months as a teaching assistant at the University of Isfahan and dismissed the accusation of espionage as "absurd."
The spy charge is linked to a private email she sent to a friend in Tehran discussing the situation in Isfahan, the diplomatic source said. Kouchner said the charges were related to "the sending of pictures taken by mobile telephone." "I think that's what it's about. That's not espionage, it cannot be. This accusation is absurd," he said. "She took part in demonstrations which, as you know, attracted hundreds of thousands of Iranians and like most of them, she took photographs in all innocence. That's what she's accused of," Kouchner told France Info radio. "I think it's an accusation which doesn't hold up." | |
| Posted by:Fred |