PARIS, May 18 (UPI) -- France Tuesday released an Iranian agent serving a life sentence for killing the last prime minister to serve under Shah Reza Pahlavi, an official said.
The decision to send home Ali Vakili-Rad comes just two days after Tehran freed young French academic Clotilde Reiss on Sunday, Radio France Internationale reports.
Vakili-Rad was convicted in the stabbing death of Shapour Bakhtiar at his home outside Paris in August 1991.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges and his lawyers maintain he was not involved in the assassination, Iran's Press TV reports.
An aide to Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said a deportation order for Vakili-Rad was signed before a court ruled Tuesday to grant his request for parole.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has denied rumors Vakili-Rad was released in exchange for Clotilde Reiss.
