TIMES ONLINE: Iran’s conservative newspapers had a field day. “London — The control room for the street riots in Tehran”, proclaimed yesterday’s Kayhan newspaper, the mouthpiece of the regime. “The British Embassy: headquarters for the coup command”, read the front-page headline of the government newspaper Iran. Referring to Hossein Rassam, an Iranian whom the British Embassy employed as its chief political analyst, the Javan newspaper proclaimed: “The accused in the ‘Velvet Revolution’ confesses”.
Mr Rassam, 44, was one of six defendants who stood before a revolutionary court in Tehran at the weekend to “confess” their roles in what a long prosecution indictment portrayed as a vast international conspiracy to topple the regime — a conspiracy devised by the British, US and Israeli intelligence services with help from France, Germany, the BBC, the British Council, Voice of America, Twitter, Facebook and Google’s Persian-language translation service.
Western politicians, human rights groups and analysts denounced the “show trials” and their apparently coerced confessions. They claimed the regime was attempting to intimidate an opposition that it had failed to suppress by force, and to rally its own fractured base by blaming foreign enemies for the turmoil that has engulfed Iran since the disputed presidential election of June 12.
Mr Rassam was arrested at the end of June and released on bail on July 19. The embassy had no idea that he was going to appear at Saturday’s trial, where he “confessed” to exactly the sort of activities that his job required — making contacts with political groups, gathering information and reporting back to the embassy. He was accused of espionage and asked for pardon and a chance to make amends.
Another of the six defendants was Clotilde Reiss, 24, a French language teacher arrested as she was leaving Iran on July 1. Looking haggard after her incarceration, she “confessed” to sending a letter to the French Embassy in Tehran from the city of Isfahan and apologised to the Iranian nation. A third defendant was Nazak Afshar, a French-Iranian working in the embassy’s cultural department, who “confessed” to attending gatherings. >>> Martin Fletcher | Monday, August 10, 2009
leJDD.fr: L’Elysée a fait savoir que Nicolas Sarkozy restait mobilisé pour obtenir la libération de Clotilde Reiss, détenues en Iran depuis le 1er juillet. Le président "multiplie les interventions". Mais les autorités iraniennes fustigent les propos de la Française.
Après le Quai d’Orsay ce week-end, c’est à l’Elysée de réagir au procès de Clotilde Reiss, qui s’est déroulé samedi en Iran à la surprise de tous. Le palais présidentiel a assuré lundi que Nicolas Sarkozy, actuellement en congé au Cap Nègre, restait actif pour libérer l’universitaire française, "l'objectif prioritaire" du chef de l’Etat dans cette affaire. "Il multiplie les interventions auprès de tous ceux qui peuvent exercer une influence en vue d'un règlement rapide et de sa libération", a assuré l’Elysée.
Le chef de l’Etat avait déjà réclamé la libération de la jeune femme de 24 ans début juillet, quelques jours après son arrestation à Téhéran. L’Elysée avait qualifié les charges qui pesaient contre elles d’"hautement fantaisistes". Clotilde Reiss est accusée d’avoir participé aux manifestations suivant la réélection de Mahmoud Ahmadinejad et d’avoir encouragé les troubles. Ce week-end, le ministère des Affaires étrangères avait réitéré les demandes de libération. Un tribunal a en effet jugé samedi Clotilde Reiss et deux employés des ambassades de France et de Grande-Bretagne à Téhéran. >>> M.V. (avec Reuters), leJDD.fr | Lundi 10 Août 2009
