Iran Releases on Bail Last of Nine British Embassy Employees - Bloomberg.com: Via Bloomberg.com .

July 20 (Bloomberg) -- Iran released on bail the last of nine local employees of the British embassy in Tehran, who were arrested following disturbances in the wake of the June 12 presidential election.

“The detention of embassy staff was completely unjustified,” Foreign Secretary David Miliband said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. “I am confident that none of them were involved in any improper behavior.”

Hossein Rassam, the embassy’s senior political analyst, was freed after posting bail of 1 billion rials ($100,000), his lawyer Abdolsamad Khoramshahi said, according to Agence France- Presse.

The arrest of the embassy staff members last month increased tension between Iran and Britain. Iranian authorities said the embassy staff acted on behalf of the British government to help instigate the largest demonstrations in Iran since the overthrow of the monarchy in 1979.

Miliband, who said he had been negotiating with Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, also called for the release of Clotilde Reiss, a 23-year-old French student who was arrested July 1 on allegations of espionage. Reiss was detained at Tehran airport when photos of demonstrations were found on her mobile phone.

Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on July 17 challenged the government’s use of force against protesters and called for the release of opposition detainees.

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