Iran frees researcher Roland Marchal

Text by: RFI Follow

It is the Elysée Palace which announces this Saturday morning. Iran has released researcher Roland Marchal, who will arrive in France in the middle of the day.

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President Emmanuel Macron "is pleased to announce the release of Roland Marchal, imprisoned in Iran since June 2019". But the French presidency "urges the Iranian authorities to immediately release our compatriot Farida Adelkha", a Franco-Iranian researcher who is still imprisoned in Iran. Roalnd MArchal has been detained in Iran since June 2019, as is his partner, the Franco-Iranian anthropologist Fariba Adelkhah, who remains detained there.

Jalal Rohollahnejad en route to Tehran

There was already talk Friday evening of an ongoing prisoner exchange between Tehran and Paris. Jalal Rohollahnejad, 41, threatened with extradition to the United States, " was handed over to the Iranian embassy in Paris, " announced Tehran. He returned to Iran " by plane ", reported Friday night to Saturday Press TV, the English news channel of Iranian state television.

► Read also : French justice authorizes the extradition of an Iranian engineer to the United States

This engineer and academic had been arrested in February 2019. No proceedings were pending against him in France. He was accused by Washington of having attempted to bring high-tech equipment into Iran, in violation of American sanctions targeting the Islamic Republic.

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• Iran
• France

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