Up To Date france

DGSE, France’s foreign intelligence service denied on Monday an accusation by an ex-deputy director that Clotilde Reiss committed espionage for France, reported the daily Le Monde.

“Clotilde Reiss never worked for us”, said the DGSE. “She was never registered as an agent and never presented herself to our services”. Last year, Reiss was tried in Iran for alleged spying. She was released last Sunday.

On Sunday, former DGSE director Maurice Dufresse mentioned on LCI TV that Reiss was a registered spy and that she had supplied France with information regarding the state of international politics in Iran as well as its nuclear programme.

“She worked for France to gather information on internal politics and also on nuclear proliferation”, he explained. “She is registered with the DGSE”. After being a lecturer in a university in Tehran for five months, Reiss was taken into custody in July last year while she was preparing to depart from the country.

She was sentenced for supplying the French Embassy in Tehran with information regarding riots that rattled Iran after the controversial win of re-electionist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Reiss was sent home to France.

Dufresse also described Reiss as “honourable” and “courageous”. He also said that she “deserved being saluted as someone who did good work”. Mr Dufresse is facing charges filed by French Interior Minister Herve Morin. According to the interior minister, the former deputy divulged national secrets in his recent book.

A French teacher arrested for spying charges in Iran last July after taking photos of demonstrations was sent home to France on Sunday, yet French authorities continue to deny allegations that the 24-year-old Clotilde Reiss’s release was part of a prisoner -exchange agreement with Iran.

Landing at a military airport in Paris, Reiss reunited with members of her family before being driven away to see President Nicolas Sarkozy and First Lady Carla Bruni at the Élysée Palace. According to her, she wants “to thank everyone who has helped me in this ordeal, starting with the president, for his support and for defending my innocence from the moment I was arrested”.

Reiss’s lawyer in Tehran said on Saturday that his client was convicted of espionage and was sentenced to do a decade in prison. However, the court decided to reduce the sentence to a fine worth 3 billion rials (a little more than $300,000) which was paid. It remains uncertain as to who will reimburse the amount.

Reiss was seized at the Tehran airport last 1 July while she was preparing to leave Iran after teaching in Isfahan for six months. She got involved in demonstrations against the June elections, which was won by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. She took a couple of photos of street clashes and e-mailed them to her friends and the French Embassy in Tehran.

After spending six weeks in Evin Prison, Reiss was freed on bail and was placed under the embassy’s custody.

Prosecutors in France on Wednesday denied a request of the United States to deport an Iranian engineer charged by the US authorities of purchasing sensitive technology and unlawful exportation of the devices to Iran.

The US government filed suits against 37-year-old Majid Kakavand for violating the country’s export legislations concerning dual-use technology, which can be utilised for military aims. Authorities in the US are seeking for the extradition of the Iranian engineer to put him into trial.

In a Paris court trial, the prosecutors said that the French weapons agency DGA made a conclusion that the electronic components bought by the Iranian engineer could not be regarded as potentially risky dual-use technology.

“The allegations by US authorities were not punishable in France at that time”, said the lead prosecutor during the hearing, which was attended by justice officials from the US.

Kakavand, through the aid of a Malaysian firm, purchased measuring devices and their component parts in the states of California, Alabama and New Jersey, and unlawfully shipped the items to Iran, alleged by the authorities in the US.

On 20 March 2009, the Iranian engineer was arrested by French authorities in an airport in Paris. The Iranian government is urging France to release Kakavand.

The case of Kakavand arose along with the French government’s demand for the release of the 24-year-old French academic Clotilde Reiss from Iran. Reiss was charged by the Iranian government of violating the country’s national security.