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A general view of the court room during the trial of
French language teaching assistant Clotilde Reiss and other defendants, in
Tehran August 8, 2009. Iran put on trial Reiss and and a local employee of
the French embassy in Tehran on Saturday following the country's disputed
June presidential election, the semi-official Fars news agency said. Reiss
was arrested at Tehran airport on July 1 on charges of espionage when
leaving the country after spending five months as a French language
teaching assistant in the central city of Isfahan.(Xinhua/Reuters
Photo)
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TEHRAN, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- The second hearing for the
trial of the protestors and activists who were arrested after the disputed
presidential election resumed in Tehran on Saturday, the official IRNA news
agency reported.
A female French national and two
Iranian staff members of the French and British embassies in Tehran were among
the accused who were put on trial for their charges related to the post-election
unrest, IRNA said.
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French language teaching assistant Clotilde Reiss
(L), prominent journalist Ahmad Zeidabadi (rear L) and Nazak Afshar (rear
R), Iranian secretary of the cultural section at the French embassy in
Tehran, sit in a court room in Tehran August 8, 2009.(Xinhua/Reuters
Photo)
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Clotilde Reiss, the French national, was arrested in
Tehran on July 1 on charges of "collecting information and provoking rioters
after the June 12 presidential election," the report said.
Reiss confessed her "mistakes" of participating in
post-election protests in Iran and providing information to the French Embassy,
according to IRNA.
"I took part in the gatherings
for personal purpose and it was a mistake," Reiss was quoted as saying, "I wrote
a one-page report about the situation...and gave it to the cultural section of
the French Embassy."
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Prominent Iranian journalist Ahmad Zeidabadi (2nd R)
and other defendants sit in a court room in Tehran August 8, 2009. Iran on
Saturday put more prominent moderates on trial in connection with the
unrest that erupted after the country's disputed June presidential
election, Iranian media reported.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
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Gallery>>> |
The Iranian employee of the French Embassy in Tehran,
identified as Ms. Afshar, and Hossein Rassam, the British Embassy's local
staffer, were also in the dock Saturday at the 15th branch of the Revolutionary
Court.
Rassam "expressed his regret over the past activities
and mistakes...and asked for forgiveness," IRNA reported.
An indictment read by Tehran's deputy prosecutor at
the beginning of the second trial said Western states, Britain in particular,
played a key role in recent street riots aiming at "soft overthrow" of the
Islamic regime.
The first hearing in the mass trial of about 100
arrested protestors was held on August 1. The second hearing was to be held on
Thursday, but it was postponed until Saturday due to a demand by the lawyers of
the accused.
Charges against the arrested people included "being
connected to the terrorist groups, bombing, carrying weapons, raiding the
police, Basij (voluntary militia), universities and military bases, sending
images to the enemy, organizing vandals and rioters, damaging public and
governmental centers," said the report.
IRNA quoted the 15th branch of the Revolutionary
Court as saying in a statement that the court would make its maximum efforts "to
create a proper situation for the accused to tell the truth during the hearing
sessions with no pressure and by their own will."
Protests gripped Tehran and other Iranian cities
after the June12 presidential election, amid claims that the vote had been
rigged in favor of incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Iran's state media said about 30 people had been
killed in relevant clashes, including some in custody.
More than 1,000 protestors and dozens of reformist
activists were reportedly arrested in the wake of the disputed election. The
authorities said most of them have been released.
Special Report: Iran Nuclear Crisis
