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"They forced a confession out of her. She is not an activist, this is not a political person at all."
Afshar and Reiss were among more than 10 other defendants brought before the court for a mass hearing on charges related to huge protests that erupted across Iran after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared to have been re-elected in the June 12 election.
Naimian said his mother had taken part in demonstrations, like "thousands of other Iranians" after the election.
"She had been regularly interrogated for a year as an employee of the cultural section of the French embassy," he said.
"Since the June 12 election she had been interrogated on emails she sent and received from friends relating to the political situation in Iran.
"Her computer was confiscated two weeks ago and she was arrested by intelligence agents on the eve of her departure to France. They lured her out of the door by saying they had come to return the computer."
Naimian said he hoped his 50-year-old mother, a secretary in the cultural section of the French embassy, would be freed due to French pressure, stressing that she had taken French nationality.
The father of French lecturer Clotilde Reiss, who turned 24 in Tehran's notorious Evin prison on July 31, also said his daughter was not politically minded.
But her father Remi Reiss told AFP: "She does not have any involvement in the region and she cannot be considered to be an activist.
"Of course she is innocent," he said. "She has nothing to reproach herself for and nobody can reproach her about anything."
The Iranian news agency IRNA said Reiss had admitted reporting on post-election protests in the central city of Isfahan.
Iranian news agencies said the young woman told the court she had made out a one-page report and had submitted it to the cultural department of the French embassy in Tehran on the current crisis there.
But her father said Reiss had gone to Iran because she was fascinated by its culture and art. She had studied Farsi and visited Iran several times already, he added.
Her interest was partly due to the fact that she had had an Iranian nanny when she was young, he said.
Also in the dock Saturday was British embassy local staffer Hossein Rassam who was detained in Tehran along with eight embassy colleagues. They were later freed, while he was released on bail.
The EU presidency joined Britain and France in urging Iran to release Reiss, Afshar and Rassam soon, calling their trial an act against the whole European Union.
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Afshar and Reiss were among more than 10 other defendants brought before the court for a mass hearing on charges related to huge protests that erupted across Iran after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared to have been re-elected in the June 12 election.
Naimian said his mother had taken part in demonstrations, like "thousands of other Iranians" after the election.
"She had been regularly interrogated for a year as an employee of the cultural section of the French embassy," he said.
"Since the June 12 election she had been interrogated on emails she sent and received from friends relating to the political situation in Iran.
"Her computer was confiscated two weeks ago and she was arrested by intelligence agents on the eve of her departure to France. They lured her out of the door by saying they had come to return the computer."
Naimian said he hoped his 50-year-old mother, a secretary in the cultural section of the French embassy, would be freed due to French pressure, stressing that she had taken French nationality.
The father of French lecturer Clotilde Reiss, who turned 24 in Tehran's notorious Evin prison on July 31, also said his daughter was not politically minded.
But her father Remi Reiss told AFP: "She does not have any involvement in the region and she cannot be considered to be an activist.
"Of course she is innocent," he said. "She has nothing to reproach herself for and nobody can reproach her about anything."
The Iranian news agency IRNA said Reiss had admitted reporting on post-election protests in the central city of Isfahan.
Iranian news agencies said the young woman told the court she had made out a one-page report and had submitted it to the cultural department of the French embassy in Tehran on the current crisis there.
But her father said Reiss had gone to Iran because she was fascinated by its culture and art. She had studied Farsi and visited Iran several times already, he added.
Her interest was partly due to the fact that she had had an Iranian nanny when she was young, he said.
Also in the dock Saturday was British embassy local staffer Hossein Rassam who was detained in Tehran along with eight embassy colleagues. They were later freed, while he was released on bail.
The EU presidency joined Britain and France in urging Iran to release Reiss, Afshar and Rassam soon, calling their trial an act against the whole European Union.
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