TEHRAN, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says France should consider a prisoner exchange to gain the freedom of a French teaching assistant accused of spying.
Speaking Wednesday during an interview on French television, Ahmadinejad asserted his idea didn't amount to blackmail, Euronews.net reported.
"If we had wanted to blackmail, there are simpler methods than that," he said.
French teaching assistant Clotilde Reiss is free on bail and staying at the French Embassy in Tehran, awaiting a verdict in her trial on espionage charges. She is accused of aiding an alleged Western plot during fierce rioting that gripped Tehran in the aftermath of Ahmadinejad's disputed June presidential victory.
Euronews.net noted that French media reports are indicating that French President Nicolas Sarkozy is considering freeing Iranian Ali Vakili Rad, who was convicted in 1994 of murdering an ex-prime minister who served under Iran's former Shah.
