Iran rejects French FM claim of prisoner swap: spokesman

TEHRAN, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast Tuesday rejected French claim that Iran has offered to exchange a French who is on trail in Tehran, with an Iranian prisoner in France, the satellite Press TV reported on Tuesday.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner on Monday rejected Iran's proposal of releasing an Iranian prisoner in exchange for the freedom of a young French academic charged with inciting street protests.

Some reports said Iran asked France to swap imprisoned Iranian Ali Vakili-Rad with 24-year-old French female teacher Coltilde Reiss.

Mehman-Parast Tuesday denied any Iranian offer of the prisoner swap.

Reiss, accused of taking part in Iran's anti-government protests during the country's presidential campaign earlier this summer, will be put on trail on Dec. 23, the official IRNA news agency said.

Vakili-Rad was convicted of the assassination in France of Iran's exiled Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar in 1991. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in December 1994 by a French court.