PARIS - A young French academic who battled spying charges in Iran for more than 10 months was allowed on Sunday return to her native France, where officials had insisted on her innocence and pressed constantly for her release.
Clotilde Reiss, 24, was accused of joining protests, gathering information, taking photos and sending them abroad during postelection unrest that broke out after June's disputed presidential elections in Iran.
She was convicted of provoking unrest and spying, but her lawyer said the 10-year jail term was commuted to a fine of 3 billion rials ($300,000). He said he paid the fine on Saturday.
Her case, which became a cause celebre in France, put extra strain on the already tense relations between the two countries. France has taken a tough stance on Iran's nuclear ambitions.
A government plane carrying Reiss touched down at the Villacoublay air base near Paris early Sunday afternoon. Arriving at the Elysee Palace for a meeting with President Nicolas Sarkozy, Reiss briefly smiled at news cameras but did not make a statement.
Officials in both countries denied widespread speculation that Reiss' return to France had some link with the cases of two Iranians held in France -- one of whom was allowed to return to his homeland a little over a week ago, while the other is awaiting a court decision in two days.
Reiss was arrested July 1 and jailed after attending a postelection demonstration at the end of a five-month teaching job in the city of Isfahan. She was released on bail after a month and a half in Iran's dreaded Evin prison, but only on condition that she stay at the French Embassy in Tehran until her trial was over.
She was among more than 100 politicians, journalists and activists accused of trying to engineer a "velvet revolution" to overthrow Iran's Islamic leadership. She pleaded not guilty. At one point during the trial, Reiss apologized to the court for attending a demonstration but said she did so because she was curious.
Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade told France's RTL radio that he played a mediating role to help secure her release.
Reiss' return came a week and a half after Iranian Majid Kakavand was permitted to leave France and return to Iran. He had been detained in France on a U.S. warrant accusing him of evading export controls to purchase technology over the Internet to sell to Iran's military.
The United States had been seeking Kakavand's extradition, but a French court rejected the request May 5.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ramon Mehmanparast, was quoted by the semiofficial Fars news agency as saying there was no link between the cases of Kakavand and Reiss, despite widespread speculation.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner also told Radio J that Reiss' release had "nothing to do with" the ruling on Kakavand, nor with a French court's upcoming decision on whether to free Ali Vakili Rad, who was convicted of assassinating former Iranian Prime Minister Shahpour Bakhtiar at his home outside Paris in 1991. That decision is expected Tuesday.
