PARIS — A day after Tehran freed a young French academic accused of spying, France prepared on Monday to release an Iranian serving a life sentence for assassinating an exiled former Iranian prime minister, Shapour Bakhtiar, in August 1991.

French and Iranian authorities denied any quid pro quo, but the timing was considered suspicious by French opposition legislators and the French media.

Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux signed a deportation order for Ali Vakili Rad, the convicted murderer, he said at a news conference on Monday. A French court will rule Tuesday on a parole request made by Mr. Vakili Rad, but it appears that he will be released and immediately sent back to Iran. He was convicted in 1994 of strangling and stabbing Mr. Bakhtiar, 76, to death.

Mr. Bakhtiar was the last prime minister under Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, who was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Prosecutors had contended that Mr. Bakhtiar was killed on the orders of the Tehran government.

On May 5, another French court rejected an American extradition request for an Iranian businessman, Majid Kakavand, 37, accused of buying electronic components online with a Malaysian address and illegally shipping them to Iranian companies engaged in military work. The court said he had done nothing illegal under French law. Mr. Kakavand flew back to Tehran after the decision.

On Sunday, the freed French academic, Clotilde Reiss, 24, returned to Paris to a welcome by President Nicolas Sarkozy and Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. Ms. Reiss participated in and photographed demonstrations against the results of the presidential election in Iran last June and sent the photos to friends and to the French Embassy. Arrested July 1, she spent six weeks in jail and the rest of the time on bail at the embassy. Tehran eventually commuted her 10-year sentence on spying charges to a fine of about $300,000.