Iranian insults against Carla Bruni ‘unacceptable’ - France

PARIS (AFP) - France said Tuesday that insults in the Iranian media against first lady Carla Bruni Sarkozy, who has been branded an "Italian prostitute" who "deserves death", are unacceptable.

"The insults in the daily Kayhan and picked up by Iranian websites against several French figures, including Mrs Carla Bruni Sarkozy, are unacceptable," foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said.

"We're making this message known through normal diplomatic channels."

The Iranian press reacted with fury last week after Bruni Sarkozy, the wife of France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, made a public statement in support of an Iranian woman who has been sentenced to be stoned to death.

She and other French personalities signed a petition calling for Tehran to release 43-year-old mother-of-two Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, whom an Iranian court has convicted of adultery and complicity in her husband's murder.

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