Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner on Monday rejected Iran's proposal of releasing an Iranian prisoner in exchange for the freedom of a young French academic charged with inciting street protests.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's proposal was out of the question, Kouchner said, adding that the French legal system wouldn't allow the swap even if the administration would like to do so.
Kouchner said Iran was implying that Clotilde Reiss, a 24-year-old researcher charged with
participating protesting demostration in Iran, could be cleared if Ali Vakili Rad, an Iranian
convicted of the 1991 murder of former Irani premier Shapour Bakhtiar in France, was released.
The minister said the young French lecturer would attend the last trial hearing on Wednesday in Iran.
"I'm in favor of her going," Kouchner said.
Reiss was arrested in the wake of the protests that followed Iran's disputed presidential election in June and was granted bail in August. She has remained in the French embassy in Tehran awaiting her final sentencing.
Ahmadinejad said Friday he was ready to release Reiss, but the decision would depend on
French authorities, local media reported.