Iran/France

Embassy worker released, teacher remains in custody

Article published on the 2009-08-12 Latest update 2009-08-12 15:40 TU

Syrian President Bachar al-Assad has been a mediator between Paris and Tehran.
(Photo: AFP)

French embassy employee Nazak Afshar was released from prison late Tuesday. But, despite an Iranian offer of conditional release, French teacher Clotilde Reiss remains incarcerated Wednesday.

"Reiss is still in jail but her trial has finished," the Fars Iranian news agency quoted prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi as saying.

"For the moment any decision on her release on bail or staying in prison will be taken by the judge. If she is released on bail, she is still not authorised to leave the country until a verdict is passed."

The two French citizens were being tried alongside a dozen other people, accused of participating in post-election demonstrations in Tehran and Esfahan.

Reiss, 24, has been accused of spying and taking part in a Western plot to destabilise the government of the Islamic republic.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy hailed the release as a “glimmer of hope” for Reiss’s release, which he hopes to secure as quickly as possible.

Despite the fact that Afshar slept at home for the first time in weeks, she is not out of trouble: the charges against her stand, and the “investigation is ongoing”, Iranian authorities said.

Sarkozy also thanked Syrian president Bashar al-Assad for the role he played in securing Afshar’s release.

Reiss’s fate remains in the hands of French and Iranian diplomats. Iran’s Ambassador to France said that his country had offered to release Reiss if she is kept in the French embassy in Tehran. French authorities, he says, have not responded to the offer.

A representative at the French Foreign Ministry responded that any indication that French diplomats are not doing everything in their power to secure her release is false.