U.K. Embassy Worker on Trial in Iran

As mass trials of protesters resume in Iran Saturday morning, the international community has its eye on one defendant in particular, an Iranian named Hossein Rassam, who happens to be the British Embassy's chief political analyst. Rassam is charged with spying and inciting unrest over President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's reelection in June. While nine British Embassy workers were arrested, Rassam was the only one charged. "This is completely unacceptable and directly contradicts assurances we had been given repeatedly by senior Iranian officials," said a British Foreign Office spokeswoman. "We deplore these trials and the so-called confessions of prisoners who have been denied their basic human rights." Britain also refutes Tehran's accusations that Foreign Office staff helped to instigate mass demonstrations. Iran, meanwhile, has repeatedly accused the U.S. and U.K. of stoking the protests.