PARIS (Xinhua) -- Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner on Monday confirmed that the French embassy in Tehran provided refuge for Iranian post-election protestors.
"What was said Saturday was true. If protestors who were being chased had sought refuge in the French embassy, the instruction was to open the door," Kouchner told the Le Parisien newspaper.
"This is European order. This is our humanitarian and democratic tradition," he said.
French embassy staffer Nazak Afshar and Clothilde Reiss, a 24 year-old French teacher, were among more than 100 people charged with spying and helping a Western plot to overthrow the Iranian government after protests following President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election victory in June.
According to Iranian media reports, the two defendants appeared in court Saturday in Tehran and Afshar said then that embassy staffers were told to give refuge to post-election protestors in case of a clash with police.
Kouchner described the trial as a "show."
"All these accusations are without foundation and do not hold. They are fallacious allegations," he said. "These 'confessions' were probably elicited under pressure."
Send to a Friend
