Human rights campaigners are hoping an imminent verdict in the case of a young French researcher, arrested in Iran during a crackdown by security forces after the disputed election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, will see her walk free.

Clotilde Reiss was put on trial for “espionage” after it was discovered she had sent e-mails and photos of street protests to recipients including a contact at the French embassy in Tehran.

French teaching assistant Clotilde Reiss on trial in Tehran

Her appearance in a Tehran “show trial” alongside dozens of so-called traitors and dissidents was condemned around the world by rights watchdogs when it became clear that her only “crime” was having been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

As a translation of one of her e-mails clearly shows, her comments represent the reaction of any intelligent young person who might become caught up in political turmoil while visiting a foreign country. A fluent Persian speaker with a fondness for Iran and its people, her remarks reflect her sadness at the repression she witnessed immediately after the June 12 election and echo the views of the most neutral of observers.

“The first batch [of photos] are of the university where I’ve been teaching. The images are hard, but I have to show what has been brought upon the students that I’ve been able to associate with. You can see the results of the students’ protest from the evening of the vote and the accouncement of the results. You also see the ferocious repression of the police. Two days after the vote, the university is empty, the students have been sent home. That is the case with the majority of universities which are closing or cancelling courses until September.”

As reported by AFP, the lawyer acting for Reiss said he was “very confident” of his client being acquitted and released to the French embassy where she has resided on bail since being released from Tehran’s Evin Prison following her interrogation and trial.

UPDATE: Iran to deliver verdict in Clotilde Reiss espionage trial on Saturday (Jan 24) – France24

Meanwhile Iran is demanding the release of engineer Majid Kakavand, arrested in France at the request of the United States for sending electronic equipment to Iran in breach of a trade embargo. Iran claims the 37 year old is innocent, yet continues to detain young foreigners without trial.

At the time of writing, US hikers Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal have been in capitivity in Tehran for the past 173 days. The trio were arrested on July 31, 2009, after allegedly crossong the unmarked Iranian border while hiking in northern Iraq.

The last “official” word from Iran on the hikers’ fate came a week before Christmas when Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told journalists that an investigation into one of the three had been completed. “The courts will soon deliver their verdict regarding this person,” said Mottaki, without revealing which hiker he was referring to.

In an interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer, published on December 21, President Ahmadinejad appeared to have hardened his stance since calling for leniency in an earlier interview. “How do you know they were looking for waterfalls and forests?” he said, referring to the Americans’ insistence that they had accidentally entered Iranian territory while hiking in a picturesque area of Kurdistan.

An optimist might consider the president as wishing to appear impartial, distancing himself from the judicial process. If so, there is ample evidence for the court to consider that the hikers had no intention of venturing beyond Iraq. This is surely indicated by the presence of a fourth hiker, Shon Meckfessel, who had been too ill to take part in the hike and had been waiting for his friends in Iraq. “We didn’t want to be anywhere near any kind of risky area. We were quite cautious,” he said later.

Iran watchers believe that any extrajudicial decision in such a sensitive case would not be made by Ahmadinejad but possibly by the country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. If so, it is difficult to see how any appeal for compassion could be made more respectfully than by Nora Shourd, the mother of Sarah, who wrapped herself in a headscarf or hijab to address Khamenei directly in a home video recorded to evoke the spirit of Christmas. One wonders how in Iran — where denouncing the United States is a state obligation — a similar respect would be expressed if the roles were reversed.

For more information, visit http://freethehikers.org where you can sign an ongoing petition to Iran’s envoy to the United Nations. Follow @FreeTheHikers for Twitter updates and links.

Tags: #SSJ, Clotilde Reiss, human rights, Iran, Iran election, Josh Fattal, Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer, US hikers
Categories: news

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 at 12.39 pm and is filed under news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.