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HELSINKI — Finnish-German telecom equipment maker Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) on Friday countered allegations technology it sold to Iran in 2008 could be used to monitor Internet traffic.

NSN sold GSM networks to Iran and “supplied one client with a certain additional feature, which is no longer in our portfolio”, spokeswoman Riitta Maard told AFP.

That feature, she said, could “be used to archive and arrange data in a certain way, and relates only to voice data”.

“Allegations that it can be used to monitor Internet traffic are not true,” Maard said.

The company came under fire in June when a petition calling for a boycott against one of its parent companies, mobile phone maker Nokia, began circulating over the Internet, claiming NSN’s technology had helped Iran to monitor mobile phones and read emails during post-election protests.

Allegations against the company flared up again, when the online version of Finnish magazine Voima http://fifi.voima.fi said last month NSN had supplied Iran with ‘Nokia Lawful Interception Gateway’ (LIG) technology, which allowed the surveillance of mobile Internet use.

Maard said the technology described included standard features built into all networks around the world to allow authorities to monitor telecommunication traffic in order, for example, to counter crime.

But, she said, many issues had been “mixed up in the public debate”, and NSN had not sold such technology to Iran.

“We have not supplied this particular product to Iran,” Maard said. “If we are talking about our Monitoring Center, which is the supplied product, it is a restricted system and is in no way related to data traffic.”

Last month, the European Parliament also pointed a finger at NSN in its resolution on Iran, saying it “strongly criticises international companies, in particular Nokia Siemens” for giving Iranian authorities the tools needed for censorship and surveillance.

It said the companies were thus “instrumental in the persecution and arrest of Iranian dissidents”.

More than 4,000 protesters and opposition figures were arrested in Iran during and after mass protests that erupted in June following the disputed re-election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, according to official figures.

Opposition sources put the number of people killed so far at 72, double the official toll of 36 dead. Hundreds more people have been detained since mid-2009 in anti-government demonstrations that have been harshly repressed.

“As a company we in no way approve of the misuse of these (surveillance) systems, but we have done nothing wrong in this regard,” Maard insisted, adding she did not know whether NSN had contacted the European Parliament to clear its name.