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Defendants confess helping West at Iran mass trial
Reuters - Sunday, August 9
By Zahra Hosseinian and Parisa Hafezi
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TEHRAN - A French woman and an Iranian who works for the British embassy in Iran confessed at a mass trial on Saturday to playing a role in unrest Tehran says was a Western attempt to overthrow the clerical leadership.
Britain said the trial of its embassy employee was an "outrage."
"We deplore these trials and the so-called confessions of prisoners who have been denied their basic human rights," a British Foreign Office spokeswoman said.
The French woman and embassy employee were among dozens charged on Saturday with challenging religious rule in the second mass trial aimed at uprooting the moderate opposition and ending protests that erupted after the June 12 election.
French citizen Clotilde Reiss was charged with "acting against national security by taking part in unrest ... collecting news and information and sending pictures of the unrest abroad," state news agency IRNA said.
Espionage and acting against national security are punishable by death under Iran's Islamic law.
Reiss confessed her "mistakes" and asked for clemency, IRNA said.
The British embassy employee, Hossein Rassam, was charged with espionage and confessed to handing information about the unrest to Washington, IRNA said.
"He apologised to the Iranian nation and asked the court for forgiveness," it said.
Riot police used force to break up protests by relatives outside the courtroom.
"Relatives of the defendants and a large group of people gathered in front of the court building on Saturday. When they chanted 'Allahu Akbar' , the riot police attacked them to disperse the crowd," the reformist Mosharekat website said.
At least 26 people have been killed and hundreds arrested in post-election violence. Moderates say the poll was rigged for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to win, but officials say it was the "healthiest" vote since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
The election and protests have plunged Iran into its biggest internal crisis in 30 years, exposing deep rifts within the ruling clerical establishment.
Reiss has been held in Tehran's Evin Prison since she was arrested at a Tehran airport on July 1 on charges of espionage as she tried to leave Iran after spending five months in the central city of Isfahan.
Television showed Reiss, wearing a black Islamic chador and headscarf, sitting in the front row in the courtroom. It was not clear whether she had a translator when the indictment was read.
France has rejected the charge against Reiss as "baseless" and French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called for her immediate release. The French Foreign Ministry said on Saturday it had no comment on Reiss for now.
"I wrote a one-page report about the situation in Isfahan ... and handed it over to the French embassy's cultural section," IRNA quoted her as saying in court.
WESTERN VOTE MEDDLING
At a mass trial last Saturday more than 100 reformists, including several prominent figures, were charged with offences that included acting against national security by fomenting post-election unrest.
Leading moderates, including defeated candidates Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi, have defied Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has formally endorsed Ahmadinejad.
They say the new government Ahmadinejad will appoint will be illegitimate.
Pro-reform politicians have denounced the court cases as "show trials," saying the confessions were made under duress.
Iran accuses the West, particularly the United States and Britain, of fomenting trouble after the June election in an attempt to topple the clerical establishment. They deny the charge.
The latest indictment accused Washington and London of "providing financial help to Iran's opposition" to fuel domestic turmoil.
"Defendant Reza Rafi'i Foroushani had contacts with American intelligence agents in Dubai ... Some European ambassadors and diplomats also attended illegal rallies," it said.
Ahmadinejad was sworn in as Iran's president on Wednesday in a ceremony boycotted by reformist leaders and parliamentarians.
U.S. President Barack Obama and the leaders of France, Britain, Italy and Germany have all decided not to congratulate Ahmadinejad on his re-election. Ahmadinejad reacted angrily, saying: "no one in Iran is waiting for your messages."
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