Wednesday, Iran turned down France's demand for guarantees that a French female academic, currently staying in its Tehran embassy, will not be remanded in custody when she shows up in court, saying the request is in violation of France's official commitments.
The rejection came after French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Clotilde Reiss would not appear before court unless the Paris receives assurance that she will not be taken into custody while awaiting her verdict. France has insisted that Reiss is not guilty and has demanded her unconditional release.
"That is no way acceptable," a foreign ministry spokesman said, adding, to make the Frenchwoman's attendance in court conditional on a guarantee from the Iranian authorities is a clear breach of the formal, written undertakings of the French government that she remains at the disposal of the judiciary.
The insistence of the French authorities in making unjustifiable demands and questioning Iranian jurisdiction threatens to create unfavorable conditions that could harm the Iranian judiciary's confidence in the sincerity of French officials about the undertakings given by its embassy, he said.
The Iranian reaction came as Tehran's Prosecutor-General Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi said earlier in the week that the trial of Reiss is scheduled to resume.
Reiss, who was working in Iran as a lecturer in the Isfahan Technical University, was detained July 1 at the Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKIA) as she was about to leave the country.
The 24-year-old French national has been accused of participating in demonstrations besides collecting information and encouraging rioters after President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in June. She was released on bail in mid-August on the condition that she remained in the French embassy pending her trial.
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