TEHRAN, Iran — Iran expanded a mass trial of opposition supporters on Sunday with the addition of 25 defendants — including a Jewish teenager — in defiance of international condemnation, as France said Iran agreed to release a French woman held on spying charges from prison.
The defendants are among more than 100 people charged with plotting a “soft revolution” against the Islamic theocracy during the postelection protests. The mass trial is part of an attempt to put an end to the protests by those who say Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s June 12 re-election was the result of fraud.
In apparent attempt to fend off criticism and move ahead with his second term, Ahmadinejad named three women who, if confirmed, would be Iran’s first female Cabinet ministers since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
