24-year-old French woman released from Iranian prison by Zuzana Zelenakova

Clotilde Reiss, 24, has been released from Iranian prison and returned to France on Sunday. The teaching assistant was arrested on 1 July, 2009 at Tehran airport on her way home. Reiss, who worked in Isfahan was accused of espionage for the west and spent 10 months in Iranian prison. According to the Iranian authorities, she took photos of the 2009 Iranian election protests and then sent them to a friend via email, which was considered a potential espionage against the Islamic country. There is a lot of speculation about a possible deal between Iran and France that ensured release of the young woman. The thing is, Iranian assassin Ali Vakili Rad who is serving a life sente! nce in Paris for a 1991 murder of Iranian Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar is expected to be released from prison these days. However, the French government denies any link between the two cases. "This series of judicial rulings -- in France we don't influence judges' decision -- has nothing to do with any haggling, any alleged bargaining," said French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner in an interview. Well, it seems the media and the opposition are convinced it was the price the French President had to pay for obtaining release of Clotilde Reiss. "We will retain from this adventure the fact that Iran has superbly manipulated and defied the democratic world and France in particular," said the newspaper Midi Libre. President Sarkozy expressed special thanks to Brazilian, Senegalese and Syrian President for their active role in the process of securing the liberation of Clotilde Reiss. After arriving in France, Reiss was transported to the Elysée palace to make a brief st! atement, in which she thanked all the people involved in her r! elease a nd also shared a memory of two inmates from Tehran´s Evin prison, that were executed. "I am thinking chiefly of two men who were executed in January 2010 and who were at my sides during the public trial that you all saw on the television," she said. "Now that I am free in my country, my thoughts are with them."

related story (sgx17318): http://www.france24.com/en/20100516-clotilde-reiss-arrives-h...

by Zuzana Zelenakova for Cantell TV (http://cantell.tv)

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