Iran: rally in Paris in support of Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal

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Nine months after their arrest in Iran, the trial of two French researchers Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal opened in Tehran on Tuesday, March 3. According to their lawyer, only the Franco-Iranian anthropologist appeared and the rest of the trial was postponed on an unspecified date. The support of the two researchers met symbolically in Paris.

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Fariba Adelkhah is prosecuted for "propaganda against the system" and Roland Marchal for " collusion with a view to endangering national security " and " propaganda against the system ". Charges dismissed by the French authorities and by the supporters of the two researchers.

" We once again demand their immediate and unconditional release. The call was read to several hundred French researchers gathered in Paris on Tuesday. They brandished portraits of Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal, and the letters that form the word "liberty" in French, English and Persian.

Today, friends and supporters of @FaribaRoland gathered again in great numbers to requets the immediate and unconditional liberation of #FreeFariba and #FreeRoland. We fear for them. Their life is NOT in prison. FREEDOM is our call for action. @sciencespo pic.twitter.com/5ocUZdL7wA

" Extremely difficult interrogations "

CNRS researcher and member of the support committee, Béatrice Hibou deplores the opacity that surrounds the legal process. She is concerned about the deteriorating state of health of the two detainees and speaks of acts of " torture ".

Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal Sciences Po

" There is a very great concern about their state of health obviously, about their state of psychological health, denounces Béatrice Hibou. They have been in prison for 272 days in extremely difficult conditions. Fariba Adelkhah was subjected to extremely difficult interrogations. Reports of his interrogation, not of his own but of these co-detainees, were published in the press, which are really cold in the back. And Farba Adelkhah could tell us that what she had experienced was even worse. "

For the supporters of Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal, the coronavirus epidemic which is hard hit Iran places the two French researchers detained in Tehran in an additional danger.

► Read also: French researcher Fariba Adelkhah, detained in Iran, was hospitalized

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