'Spy' academic Clotilde Reiss leaves Iran for France

[pinto]

Source: BBC

'Spy' academic Clotilde Reiss leaves Iran for France



A French lecturer charged with spying in Iran after last June's disputed election has left the country, the French president's office has said.

President Nicolas Sarkozy's office said Clotilde Reiss would fly into Paris at about 1300 (1100 GMT).

She was sentenced to 10 years in jail but this was commuted to a fine of $285,000 (£190,000), her lawyer said.

The 25-year-old was accused of espionage and e-mailing photographs of anti-government protests.

"The president of the republic will receive her and her family at the Elysee Palace as soon as she arrives in Paris," AFP quoted the president's office as saying.


Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8685071.stm

[aquart]

1. She's out and free? That's one.

And God knows what happened while they were holding her.

Haven't seen a tweet from Change_for_Iran or PersianKiwi since June 24, I think.

[Robb]

2. French academic heads home after Iran trial ordeal

Source: AFP (via DAWN)

PARIS: Young French teacher Clotilde Reiss was flying home from Iran on Sunday, 10 months after she was arrested and accused of spying and inciting anti-government protests.

The 24-year-old researcher was to be welcomed by President Nicolas Sarkozy at an airbase outside Paris after her lawyer paid a fine of more than a quarter of a million dollars to Iranian authorities.

Her arrival will bring to an end a long drama which raised tensions between France and Iran and saw the young teacher paraded at a televised show trial and spend six weeks in Tehran's notorious Evin prison.

The release came shortly after a French court ruled against a US extradition request for an Iranian engineer and shortly before another judge was to rule on the parole request of a jailed Iranian assassin.

But French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner insisted in an interview with Radio J that there had been “no haggling and no pay off” to ensure the release and said that there had been no link between the French and Iranian cases.

Read more: http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/world/30-french-academic-heads-home-after-iran-trial-ordeal-so-02

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$250,000 isn't a payoff?