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Sarkozy demands that Iran release jailed French woman (Roundup)
Jul 7, 2009, 11:34 GMT
Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy Tuesday demanded that Iran release a young French university assistant jailed on a charge of espionage.
'I will say is as clearly and simply as possible: we demand the release of our compatriot. These accusations of spying are completely whimsical,' Sarkozy said in Paris after meeting Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Earlier Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner had identified the woman arrested as 23-year-old Clotilde Reiss, an assistant in the French language at the university of Ispahan.
He said Reiss was on her way back to France when she was arrested at the Tehran airport.
'This is a young French girl who must be released immediately because she is innocent and because there is no basis to the accusations,' Kouchner told France 3 television.
'This woman is accused of spying. If we understand correctly, it concerns the sending of photographs ... photographs taken with a mobile phone,' he said. 'This is not spying; it can not be. The accusation is absurd.'
In another interview, with France Info radio, Kouchner said that Reiss had also participated at the demonstrations that followed the controversial re-election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
'Like many of (the demonstrators), she took some photographs in all innocence,' he said.
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