Iran’s attorney in “Argo” case says the film was commissioned by CIA

TEHRAN,May 21(MNA) -- Iran’s French attorney in the “Argo” case, Isabelle Coutant-Peyre said that the film was produced under a commission from the CIA. Speaking at a press conference in Tehran on Sunday, Coutant-Peyre said that a White House staffer named Barbara is ready to provide evidence that the CIA is behind the film. Coutant-Peyre was hired by Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance since March this year to sue the “Argo” producers over the “anti-Iran” content of the film. The film is about the 1980 joint CIA-Canadian secret operation to extract six fugitive American diplomatic personnel out of revolutionary Iran. Coutant-Peyre said that she is waiting for Iranian officials’ green light to pursue the case in a court in France. Producer George Clooney, director Ben Affleck, and the chief officials of Warner Bros. will be summoned to appear in the court, she added. Iran could win the case a hundred percent, Coutant-Peyre noted and expressed her hope that the court would “symbolically” award the country compensation. “Argo” was officially viewed as an “anti-Iranian” film in Iran after it began its premiere in the U.S. in October of last year. Following the film’s Oscar triumph on February 24,2013 Iranian officials retained Coutant-Peyre to file a lawsuit against the producers of the film. Coutant-Peyre is the lawyer and wife of Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, known as Carlos the Jackal, who was once among the world’s most wanted fugitives. Ramirez’s name has also been linked to a string of terrorist activities, and he was convicted of involvement in several bombings in France in the early 1980s that killed 11 and injured 150. She also represented Zacarias Moussaoui early on during his imprisonment, while he was awaiting trial for his role in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.