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An Iranian national sentenced to life in prison in France for murdering Shahpour Bakhtiar, the last Iranian prime minister under the shah, arrived in the Iranian capital of Tehran on the eve of Tuesday, reported news agencies.

A French court ruled the release of Ali Vakili Rad early that day, a couple of days following the Iran’s repatriation of Clotilde Reiss, a French teaching assistant who was detained on spying charges in relation to the photographs she took during the anti-government rallies in Tehran in 2009.

Both France and Iran denied a link between the release of the two prisoners despite the French Socialists’ doubt. The opposition forced Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner to respond to questions thrown by parliamentarians regarding the release if the teacher.

“Vakili Rad returned to Iran on Tuesday night and was greeted by foreign ministry official Hassan Qashqavi”, reported the Fars news agency.

In 1994, he was sentenced for the murder of Bakhtiar, a graduate of Sorbonne and a French resistance veteran who travelled to France after the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran. He also spearheaded a group other exiled members of the opposition from Paris,just hours after the release order was issued, the 51-year-old Vakili Rad was freed from a prison somewhere near Paris. He was also escorted by the police.

“I have been through hell and now I am happy to have found heaven”, Fars said at an airport in Tehran.

On Tuesday, a French court ordered the release of Iranian agent Ali Vakili Rad a few days after Iran sent home a young French teacher convicted of espionage in Tehran.

Vakili Rad had finished serving his life sentence for the murder of Shapour Bakhtiar, the last prime minister of shah, at his house on the outskirts of Paris back in August 1991. He qualified for parole last year.

A sentencing court in Paris favoured the parole of the Iranian agent, said the Paris prosecutor’s office a day after the interior minister signed the deportation order for Rad.

Rad’s lawyer Sorin Margulis continued to deny allegations that the granting of the parole was part of an agreement with Iran to facilitate the release of Clotilde Reiss, a 24-year-old French teacher, who was sentenced in Iran for charges against national security.

“This must not be seen as an exchange”, Margulis explained to reporters. Vakili Rad was anticipated to take a Tehran-bound flight later today, added his lawyer.

Last year, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tied up the release of the Reiss to the fate of Iran citizens imprisoned in France. However, France firmly opposes rumours that a swap was agreed upon by both countries.

In 1994, Vakli Rad was found guilty for strangling and stabbing Bakhtiar, who was 76 years old, inside his home on 6 August 1991. He was sent to Poissy, located in western Paris, to serve his sentence.

The man convicted of the murder of the last prime minister of Iran is expected to hear soon whether he is to be paroled.

Ali Vakili Rad was sentenced to life in prison in France in 1994 for the killing of Shapour Bakhtiar at his home in Suresnes, near Paris.

At the time the court heard how Rad, an agent of the Iranian government, had stabbed the last PM of the Shah to death in his home.

At sentencing, Rad was given a minimum tariff of 15 years and became eligible for parole in July last year.

Now Rad is awaiting news of his parole hearing and also the result of an application for expulsion from the country on release.

His lawyer Sorin Margulis told reporters in Paris yesterday: “The court is favourable to this parole request but is awaiting the expulsion order.”

A further hearing has been set for March 9.

Commentators have questioned the timing of the parole hearing, which coincides with French efforts to secure the release of academic Clothilde Reiss who has been found guilty of crimes against Iranian national security after photographing anti government protests and emailing the images to friends abroad as well as passing information to the French embassy in Tehran.

The Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for the release of Iranian nationals in exchange for the 24-year-olds freedom, but French officials deny there is any link between the two cases.