Academic ‘leaves Iran for France’

Clotilde Reiss in court in Tehran on August 2009

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 arrive in 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.

Nuclear link?

Ms Reiss’s lawyer, Mohammad Ali Mahdavi, earlier said he had paid the fine on her behalf.

She has been staying at the French embassy in the capital Tehran since she was bailed six weeks after her arrest in July last year.

At that time, Ms Reiss had been on a six-month teaching and research assignment in the central city of Isfahan.

The BBC’s Hugh Schofield in the French capital says that with France at the forefront of efforts to punish Iran for its nuclear programme, there has been suspicion she was being held to put pressure on Paris.

Last week, France freed an Iranian engineer whom it detained for allegedly exporting electronic parts illegally to sell to Iran’s military.

The US had wanted to extradite Majid Kakavand, but a French court rejected the request last week and he was allowed return home.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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