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TEHRAN — Iran hit back on Monday at Western criticism of the mass trials of election protesters, saying it would strongly resist such "foreign intervention" in its domestic affairs.

Iran has put around 110 people in the dock over the protests unleashed since the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June, including a French woman lecturer and two local employees of the British and French embassies.

Western governments have branded the court proceedings "show trials."

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi described the criticism as "illegal and surprising," and said statements by the embassy employees in court smacked of foreign meddling.

"The comments made by Iranians working here is an example of foreign intervention in Iran's domestic affairs. We will strongly stand against any intervention," he said, the official IRNA news agency reported.

British embassy employee Hossein Rassam, French lecturer Clotilde Reiss and an Iranian employee at the French embassy, Nazak Afshar, appeared before a revolutionary court in Tehran on Saturday.

Ghashghavi denied that the testimony given by Rassam, who has now been charged with spying, was made under pressure.