Confessions in Iran's show trial

TEHRAN, Iran - A young French academic and local staff of the British and French embassies stood trial yesterday with dozens of Iranian opposition figures and confessed to being involved in the country's postelection unrest.

Iran's opposition and rights groups have condemned the trial as a sham and say such confessions are coerced and scripted. Britain, which seemed caught off guard by the appearance of its embassy employee, called it an outrage.

Yesterday's second hearing at Tehran's Revolutionary Court involved a new group of detainees and focused on testimony from the French academic and the two other foreign-linked defendants, demonstrating the government's resolve to taint Iran's pro-reform movement as a tool of foreign countries - particularly Britain and the United States.

The prosecutor accused the two countries of fomenting the unrest in an attempt to engineer a "soft overthrow" of the government.

The French academic and the two embassy employees took turns standing at a podium in the large, wood-paneled courtroom to make confessions before a judge.

The French Embassy employee, Nazak Afshar, cried as she admitted she was involved in postelection disturbances. She dabbed her eyes with a tissue and said that "brothers at the Intelligence Ministry made me understand my mistake," the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

Such confessions - whether coerced or not - have become the centerpiece of Iran's mass trial of more than 100 prominent opposition figures and activists, which began a week ago.

The defendants are accused of crimes including rioting, spying, and plotting to overthrow the regime during the massive street demonstrations denouncing the official results of the June 12 election.

The prosecutor read out an indictment at yesterday's session that accuses Britain and the United States of planning to rouse the unrest with the aim of toppling Iran's Islamic rulers through a "soft overthrow," IRNA reported. The indictment also accused the two powers of providing financial assistance to Iran's reformists to undermine hard-line ruling clerics.

Hossein Rassam, a political analyst at the British Embassy who was arrested shortly after the election, told the court that Britain was involved in fomenting the unrest, according to IRNA.

He said a budget of 300,000 pounds - or about $500,000 - had been allocated to establish contacts with Iranian political groups, influential individuals, and activists, IRNA reported. The news agency quoted him as saying that he established contacts before the election with the campaign headquarters of Mir Hossein Mousavi, the pro-reform candidate who says the election was fraudulent.

Rassam has been charged with espionage and "acting against national security," IRNA reported.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband condemned the trial and said his government had raised the matter with the Iranian ambassador in London and with Iran's deputy foreign minister.

"Hossein is a member of our staff going about his legitimate duties," Miliband said in a statement. It added that the trial against him and other embassy staff "only brings further discredit to the Iranian regime."

Eight other British Embassy staffers arrested along with Rassam were released after about a week in custody.

French academic Clotilde Reiss, 24, who was reportedly arrested July 1, told the court that she made a mistake by attending a demonstration, according to IRNA. She has been charged with acting against national security by joining protests, gathering information, and taking photos and sending them abroad.

The French Foreign Ministry called for the release of both Reiss and embassy employee Afshar.

Iranian defendants appearing yesterday included a former reformist lawmaker; a leader of Iran's largest reformist political party; and an outspoken journalist opposing hard-liners.