TEHRAN —
Iran announced on Tuesday
that it arrested two
French nationals this month for allegedly attempting to
provoke unrest by meeting with representatives of teachers’ unions, in a report
on state television.
اضافة اعلان
The broadcaster aired footage of the pair, a 37-year-old woman and a
69-year-old man, from the moment they set foot in the Islamic republic on April
28 until their arrest on May 7. “The two entered Iran with tourist visas... but
monitoring and surveillance of their movements and meetings by Iran’s
intelligence ministry showed they were not in fact tourists,” the report said.
France last week condemned the arrest in Iran of two
French citizens as
“baseless” and called for their immediate release. It did not name the pair.
Iran had only previously announced the arrest of two Europeans on what the
intelligence ministry said were accusations of seeking to “destabilize the
country”.
Their arrest comes after a months-long campaign by teachers in Iran
calling for the government to speed up the implementation of reforms that would
see their salaries better reflect their experience and performance. Protesters
have been calling on the authorities to release teachers detained at similar
demonstrations.
Tuesday’s
television report also included an audio file allegedly belonging to the two,
as well as accusations that they had been “attempting to form a kind of protest
to foment unrest”. In the recording, the voice of a female is alleged to be
heard saying, “it is a battle to get the majority of Iranians”, in English. The
voice of a male then allegedly responds by saying, “we ought to build a
revolutionary package”, also in English.
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