Iran has freed Clotilde Reiss, the French lecturer who had been charged with spying following last June's disputed Presidential elections.
Ms. Reiss had been first sentenced to 10 years in prison for spying and e-mailing photographs of the post-election protests. Later, her sentence was commuted to a fine of $285,000, said her lawyer.
Ms. Reiss was residing in the French embassy in Tehran after she had been bailed, six weeks after her arrest in July last. Her lawyer Mohammad Ali Mahdavi said the fine had been paid on his client's behalf. At the time of her arrest, Ms. Reiss had been teaching and conducting research at Iran's central city of Isfahan.
She has been freed after France, last week, released an Iranian engineer detained for allegedly exporting illegally, electronic parts to the Iranian military. The U.S. had been seeking Majid Kakavand's extradition, which a French court had rejected last week.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told Radio J in France that “no haggling and no pay-off” had been involved in securing Ms. Reiss' release. French President Nicolas Sarkozy is slated to meet the freed French woman later on Sunday.
