AFP: Iranian Justice Minister Jamal Karimi-Rad on Tuesday denied that a French skipper jailed for illegally entering Iranian territorial waters is also facing a second trial on espionage charges. TEHERAN, Nov 21, 2006 (AFP) – Iranian Justice Minister Jamal Karimi-Rad on Tuesday denied that a French skipper jailed for illegally entering Iranian territorial waters is also facing a second trial on espionage charges.
Karimi-Rad said that comments attributed to him in a statement issued on November 7 after a meeting with visiting French MP Xavier de Roux were “inaccurate”.
“I did not talk of espionage. Unfortunately some foreign agencies published inaccurate reports,” he said.
French skipper Stephane Lherbier and his German client Donald Klein were arrested in November last year after straying into Iranian waters on a boat trip from the United Arab Emirates across the Gulf.
They said they had been misled by Emirati maps showing the waters as Emirati but were sentneced to 18 months in jail two months later.
In the earlier statement, Karimi-Rad had been quoted as saying that the French skipper faced a second trial on espionage charges and that a verdict was expected soon.
