Father hopes release of Frenchwoman in Iran imminent

French language teaching assistant Clotilde Reiss testifies during her trial at the Revolutionary court in Tehran August 8, 2009.

PARIS (Reuters) - The father of a French teaching assistant charged with spying in Iran said on Thursday he hoped his daughter would leave prison later in the day, after France agreed to provide bail for her conditional release.

Iran has said Clotilde Reiss, a 24-year-old university teaching assistant, will not be able to leave the country even if she is released on bail, until the sentence is issued.

Her father, Remi Reiss, said on French radio did not know the exact sum paid for her release after intense negotiations between Paris and Tehran, but estimated it at several hundreds of thousands of euros.

"The most plausible scenario and the one we're hoping for is a conditional release in the next few hours, that is to say, this morning," Remi Reiss told France Inter radio on Thursday.

Given that Friday is a day of rest in Iran, he said the next likely date would be Saturday.

Iran is staging mass trials, including of employees of the British and French embassies, aimed at uprooting the opposition and putting an end to protests that erupted after disputed June 12 presidential election.

Britain and France have protested against the trials and called for the release of their staff.

France has also said Reiss, who has been charged with spying and aiding a Western plot to topple the Iranian government, is innocent and should be freed.

A staff member from the French embassy in Tehran has already been released from jail though she is still being prosecuted.

(Reporting by Laure Bretton, writing by Sophie Hardach)