Word: afshar
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...stood mass trial this month for allegedly inspiring the unrest and undermining the regime. On Aug. 16, Reiss was released on bail on the condition that she remain under house arrest at the French embassy until the announcement of the case's verdict. Last week, Franco-Iranian national Nazak Afshar, who worked in the French embassy in Tehran and was held on similar charges, was released to the embassy to await a verdict in her trial. In both cases French officials attributed the release of the women to intervention by what an official in Paris called "our Syrian friends...
...President Nicolas Sarkozy, Foreign Affairs Ministry officials say, has repeatedly spoken by phone with his Syrian counterpart, President Bashar Assad, in recent weeks, requesting that Syria use all its influence with Tehran to free Afshar and Reiss. French officials now suspect Iran will mete out some symbolic legal ruling allowing the pair to return to France - perhaps before the start of Ramadan on Friday, Aug. 21. International media reports say a hastily organized visit by Assad to Iran has been planned for this week - presumably to secure Reiss and Afshar's freedom. (See pictures of Sarkozy celebrating Bastille...
...What's more, Syria doesn't risk much going to bat for Paris now, since Iran is likely to spring Reiss and Afshar anyway. Tehran has used the women in the way it wanted to: as symbols of the supposed foreign planning behind the postelection protests. The bigger question is, Could Syria now be a useful interlocutor on the nuclear deal...
Following on the heels of an unprecedented mass trial of 100 opposition figures a week ago, Saturday's session at Tehran's Revolutionary Court focused on the British embassy's chief political analyst, Hossein Rassam; a local staff member of the French embassy, Nazak Afshar; and a 24-year-old French teacher, Clotilde Reisse, who was working and studying in Isfahan, according to IRNA, Iran's official news agency. In a vague and rambling indictment, the three were charged with espionage and "acting against the national security," and for inciting "riots." It went on to blame a litany of Western...
Local diplomatic staffer Afshar, who works in the cultural mission of the French embassy, wept as she explained her role in the postelection unrest, "I physically attended gatherings ... Brothers at the Intelligence Ministry made me understand my mistake." Human-rights activists believe the confessions at these trials have been made under duress. In last week's trial, observers noted that former Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi appeared confused and seemed to have lost some 20 lb. during his monthlong incarceration...