Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy late Wednesday firmly rejected an offer by his Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to exchange a French woman charged with spying against Iranians imprisoned in France. "No. That's blackmail," Sarkozy said on French television when asked if he would accept such a deal. "Clotilde Reiss... is innocent."
The 24-year-old Reiss was arrested and charged with espionage for writing e-mails about the demonstrations that followed Ahmadinejad's controversial re-election.
She was released on bail August 16, after spending six weeks in prison, and is currently living in the French embassy in Tehran under judicial supervision.
The daily Le Figaro reported that she could be exchanged for Ali Vakili Rad, who was sentenced to life in prison in France for the 1991 assassination of former Iranian prime minister Shapour Bakhtiar.
Sarkozy said Rad would only be freed if he satisfied the requirements of his sentence. "It's a question of justice, not me," Sarkozy said, and demanded that Reiss be allowed to leave the country.
"She must be freed," the French president said.
