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Reiss worked for French spy agency

French citizen Clotilde Reiss, who was arrested in Iran in 2009, worked for a French intelligence agency, a former French spy says.

The French teacher was arrested on charges of taking part in a Western plot against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Reiss worked “very well” for the French spy agency, the British daily The Daily Telegraph quoted Pierre Siramy, a former senior French spy, as saying on Monday.

Siramy, who used to work for the French external intelligence service DGSE, reportedly said she was not a spy “in the classic sense of the word”, but worked “à l’anglaise” (in the English style), meaning she “bravely” handed over information on an “amicable” basis for the good of the country.

“She was our representative’s contact,” he added.

In this sense, Reiss provided reports on domestic politics in the run-up to the June 2009 presidential election in Iran and on a nuclear site under construction next to the central town of Isfahan, where she was a university lecturer, the British paper reported.

“She deserves to be recognized as someone who worked very well (for France),” the former French intelligence agent stated.

Siramy’s remarks have stirred up a controversy in the French intelligence community, which has denied his allegations.

Among French papers reporting on Reiss’s release, Le Monde was the only one to raise the question as to whether she worked for the French intelligence service.

According to Le Monde, Reiss passed specific intelligence information to a French intelligence agent in Tehran for the past three years.

While receiving training in the French Atomic Energy Commissary (CEA), Reiss wrote a report on Iran’s nuclear policy.

Reiss was arrested at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport last year and released on May 16, 2010.

On July 8, 2009, she appeared in a court hearing where she admitted that she had reported to the French Embassy and to about 50 friends and members of her family about Iran’s nuclear program, as well as the country’s post-election developments, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

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