The French foreign ministry expressed “astonishment” at the reimprisonment of Adelkhah, calling on her immediate release and adding the move had have “no explanation or preliminary warning” ;.
“Your decision can only have negative consequences on the connection between France and Iran and reduce confidence between our two countries,” the foreign ministry said.
Also being held in Iran is Frenchman Benjamin Briere, who his family describe as an innocent tourist but was detained while travelling in May.
Briere’s family announced last month he’d begun a hunger strike to protest at his detention conditions and the lack of evolution in his case.
A specialist in Shiite Islam and a study director at Sciences Po university in Paris, Adelkhah was arrested in June 2019 alongside her French colleague and partner Roland Marchal.
Marchal was launched in March 2020 in a apparent prisoner swap after France released Iranian engineer Jallal Rohollahnejad, who faced extradition to the United States over accusations he violated US sanctions against Iran.
Adelkah’s support group said she have been imprisoned “on trumped-up charges and without any proper trial” ;.
Nationals of most three European powers mixed up in talks on the Iranian nuclear programme — Britain, France and Germany — are among those foreigners being held.
In a different development on Wednesday, the British Council said its staffer, Iranian citizen Aras Amiri, had returned to the United Kingdom after being cleared on appeal of a 10-year jail sentence for “cultural infiltration” in Iran.
The 2015 deal — agreed by Iran, the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany — offered Tehran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme.
However US president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States in 2018 and reimposed biting sanctions, prompting Tehran to begin rolling back on its commitments.
Updated Links:
