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Iran to resume trial of French lecturer on Dec 23

Iran Materials 22 December 2009 06:53 (UTC +04:00)
The trial of a French teaching assistant who was arrested in Tehran on spying charges after Iran's disputed election in June will resume on Wednesday, an Iranian news agency said on Monday, Reuters reported.
Iran to resume trial of French lecturer on Dec 23

The trial of a French teaching assistant who was arrested in Tehran on spying charges after Iran's disputed election in June will resume on Wednesday, an Iranian news agency said on Monday, Reuters reported.

Clotilde Reiss, who is out of jail on bail and staying at the French embassy, is accused of taking part in a Western plot to destabilize the Iranian government after the June 12 vote in which hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected.

ISNA news agency quoted the public relations office of Tehran's Revolutionary court as saying the "second stage of the trial dealing with Clotilde Reiss's charges" would be held on Dec 23.

It said the session would also be attended by her defense lawyer and a prosecutor, but did not give further details.

Reiss was arrested on July 1 and her trial started in August, when she was put in the dock alongside other accused and shown on Iranian television.

Official media quoted her as admitting to "mistakes" and asking for clemency, but French authorities have rejected the charges against her as baseless.

She appeared before a judge in Tehran also last month.

Reiss, 24, was arrested as she prepared to go home after five months spent working at the University of Isfahan.

The protests after Iran's presidential election were the biggest in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Iranian authorities deny vote-rigging and portrayed the unrest as a foreign-backed bid to undermine the Islamic state.

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