Tehran, November 12: Iran rejected France’s demand for guarantees that a French female academic currently holed up in its Tehran embassy will not be remanded in custody if she attends her next trial hearing.
“Making 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 Fars news agency quoted a foreign ministry spokesman as saying.
“That is no way acceptable,” said the spokesman, Ramin Mehmandoust.
“The insistence of the French authorities on presenting unjustifiable demands and questioning Iranian jurisdiction threatens to create unfavourable conditions that could harm the Iranian judiciary’s confidence in the sincerity of French officials about the undertakings given by the French embassy.
–PTI