The Franco-Iranian researcher Fariba Adelkhah, detained since 2019 in Iran, has been reincarcerated in Tehran for having violated the rules of her house arrest, the Iranian justice announced on Sunday.
“Unfortunately, Ms. Adelkhah deliberately violated the limits set on her house arrest dozens of times, and as a result, she was sent back to prison,” deputy head of the judiciary, Kazem Gharibabadi, was quoted by Mizan as saying. Iranian Justice News Agency.
Discontinued in 2019
Fariba Adelkhah, 62, had been under house arrest since October 2020 in Tehran and required to wear an electronic bracelet, with limited movement within a radius of 300 meters.
A specialist in Shiism and post-revolutionary Iran at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, she was arrested in June 2019 and then sentenced in May 2020 to five years in prison for undermining national security, which her relatives have always fiercely disputed.
Kazem Gharibabadi regretted that the researcher ignored “repeated warnings from the judicial authorities”. French President Emmanuel Macron described the Iranian authorities’ decision on Thursday as “totally arbitrary”, saying that “all of France” was “mobilized for [la] liberation” of the researcher.
Iran does not recognize dual nationality
The day before, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs had warned that his reincarceration “could only have negative consequences” on bilateral relations and “reduce confidence” between the two countries. Kazem Gharibabadi said on Sunday that these statements were “unfounded” and denounced the interference of foreign countries in the Iranian judicial system.
“Ms. Adelkhah is a citizen of the Islamic Republic of Iran and we strongly condemn the intervention of other countries in the judicial process,” he said. Iran does not recognize dual nationality and treats those arrested as Iranian citizens. The Deputy Chief added that “It is very regrettable that the French authorities (…), despite their knowledge of Ms. Adelkhah’s violations, report unfounded information, which is unacceptable”.
His companion also arrested and then released
Several dual nationals and another French citizen, Benjamin Brière, are detained in Iran. In recent years, the Islamic Republic has carried out several exchanges of detainees with foreign countries. Fariba Adelkhah and her companion, the Africanist Roland Marchal, who came to join her for a private visit, were arrested on June 5, 2019 at Tehran airport by the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic. Roland Marchal was released on March 20, 2020 as part of an exchange of detainees between Tehran and Paris.
Thursday in Paris, a hundred people had gathered to show their indignation and their support for Fariba Adelkhah “scientific prisoner” in Iran. Her relatives also expressed their concerns about the physical health of the researcher.
François Pacquemant, in charge of History and Strategic Thinking at the French Development Agency (AFD) and member of the Fariba support committee, was particularly concerned about her health “weakened by the hunger strike she went on in December 2019” and “uncertainties caused by the health situation”.
Fears linked to Covid-19
His imprisonment comes just days after the death of Iranian poet and dissident Baktash Abtin, who died in prison after contracting Covid-19 there, according to revelations from several human rights organizations. They accuse Tehran of being responsible for this death.
This reversal comes as Iran and several countries (France, United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, China, plus the United States indirectly) relaunched talks at the end of November to save the 2015 Iranian nuclear agreement. , supposed to prevent Tehran from acquiring atomic weapons, which Tehran denies.