Defendants confess helping West at Iran mass trial
Washington Post / Parisa Hafezi and Zahra Hosseinian
08-Aug-2009

TEHRAN (Reuters) - An Iranian court on Saturday charged a French woman, two Iranians working for the British and French embassies in Tehran and dozens of others with spying and aiding a Western plot to overthrow the system of clerical rule.

Britain said the trial of its embassy employee was an "outrage."

"We deplore these trials and the so-called confessions of prisoners who have been denied their basic human rights," a British Foreign Office spokeswoman said.

It was the second mass trial in a week aimed at uprooting the moderate opposition and ending protests that erupted after the disputed June 12 presidential election.

At least 26 people have been killed and hundreds arrested in post-election violence. Moderates say the poll was rigged for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to win, but officials say it was the "healthiest" vote since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

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