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Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article7128864.ece
France Accused of Striking Deal with Iran on Prisoner Releases
(Times-UK) Charles Bremner - French judges are expected Thursday to release Ali Vakili Rad, who is serving a 1994 life sentence for murdering Shapour Bakhtiar, the last prime minister of the late Shah, in Paris. The move appears to be part of a deal which won the freedom of Clotilde Reiss, 24, a French student who had been held for 10 months in Tehran. President Sarkozy's government denied any link with a Paris court's decision last week to refuse an American request for the arrest of Iranian businessman Majid Kakavand, 36, wanted by Washington for exporting to Iran U.S.-made electronics which had possible military use. The media saw the twin releases as the price that Sarkozy had been forced to pay for Reiss' freedom. France also paid a $285,000 fine to obtain her release from house arrest at the French embassy in Tehran.