Iran arrests French woman for ‘spying’

France’s foreign ministry has appealed to the European Union for support in pressuring Iran to release yet another foreigner accused by the Iranians of spying.

The French woman, an academic by profession, had been in Iran for five months and was on her way home, when she was arrested at the airport.

The French ministry’s statement is as adamant about the groundlessness of the charges as President Obama was in reference to the spy charges brought against Roxana Saberi. “France firmly condemns the July 1 arrest and detention by Iran of a French academic. …The spying charges put forward by the Iranian authorities do not pass the test.”

The statement did not specify the woman’s name, nor the university for which she works, nor the nature of her sojourn in Iran.

France is not the only European country trying to talk sense into the Iranians. Recently nine staff members working at the British embassy in Tehran were arrested for allegedly instigating some of the riots caused by President Ahmadinejad’s hotly contested re-election. Eight of the nine embassy workers have been released, but there is the ninth to attend to, and of course a general statement to let Iran know where the EU stands on the country’s treatment of foreign diplomats and visitors…

images courtesy of nicogallery.com and upi.com