TEHRAN: Iran on Saturday put on trial a French lecturer and two Iranian employees of British and French embassies with protesters who challenged the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Clotilde Reiss, who turned 24 in Tehran’s 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.
Fellow defendant Nazak Afshar, from the French Embassy’s cultural section, was also in court. The hearing was not open to foreign media.
State television said both Reiss and Afshar played an “active role in the unrest by giving information to foreign embassies.” IRNA said Reiss admitted reporting on postelection 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.”
ISNA news agency quoted Reiss as saying she sent e-mails about the demonstrations to friends and family members. “My father works for the French atomic energy commission (CEA). I did an internship there and for that I wrote a report on policy in Iran on nuclear energy,” it quoted her as saying. “I based it on articles and information I found on the Internet. There was nothing secret.”
ISNA quoted Reiss 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 postelection 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.”
Also in the dock 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.
The judge, identified by only the name Salavati, said the allegation merited a charge of espionage.
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 told the court 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.”
Ahmadinejad’s main challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi and reformist former 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 European Union. “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.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Rassam’s trial was the “latest Iranian provocation” since the disputed presidential election and he was “deeply concerned by the unjustified charges.” More than 10 other defendants detained during the protests that followed Ahmadinejad’s hotly disputed June 12 re-election were also in court.
It was the second hearing in the trial of a number of key reformist politicians and journalists, the ISNA news agency said. Some 100 defendants were charged at the first hearing on Aug. 1 with various offenses, including rioting. Reiss and the two embassy staffers were not present in court then.
The judge said Saturday that the date for the next hearing will be announced later, ISNA reported.
