Fariba Adelkhah (archives) - IBO / SIPA

  • The Franco-Iranian anthropologist Fariba Adelkhah was sentenced to five years in prison for "collusion" and an additional year for "propaganda".
  • Detained in Evin prison in Tehran, this 61-year-old Shiism specialist has always claimed her innocence.
  • Paris denounces a “political” condemnation, while an observer describes a part of “three-strip billiards”, against a backdrop of international tensions.

Detained in Iran for almost a year, the Franco-Iranian anthropologist Fariba Adelkhah was sentenced to five years in prison for "collusion" against national security and "propaganda against the system", his lawyer announced on Saturday. This Saturday early in the afternoon, Paris denounces a “political” condemnation.

Detained in Evin prison in Tehran, this 61-year-old Shiism specialist has always claimed her innocence. His arrest in June 2019, like that of another French researcher Roland Marchal - recently released - had been denounced by France, which is demanding his release. But Iran does not recognize dual nationality. Its support committee in Paris denounced on Saturday the "opaque process" in which the legal proceedings took place, akin to the "Kafka trial".

Six-year total sentence

The researcher has been sentenced to five years in prison for "collusion to endanger national security" and one year for "propaganda against the system" of the Islamic Republic, but she must only serve the sentence. longer, said Saïd Dehghan. These convictions can nevertheless be appealed.

Her colleague and companion, Roland Marchal, was arrested like her in June 2019 when he came to visit her in Tehran. Also accused of "collusion with a view to attacking national security", he was finally released at the end of March. Tehran then mentioned an exchange with an Iranian engineer detained in France and threatened with extradition to the United States.

Health concerns

According to the lawyer, the accusation of "propaganda against the political system" refers to the researcher's remarks on the wearing of the veil in Iran, but according to him these are remarks by an academic above all more than d 'a value judgment.

During her trial, which opened on March 3, the researcher was very weakened by a 49-day hunger strike between the end of December and February, according to her lawyer. After this, Fariba Adelkhah's support committee was alarmed by the risks of the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic in prisons in Iran, one of the most affected countries in the world with nearly 7,000 deaths. The researcher is said to be suffering from "kidney disease, a consequence of (her) hunger strike".

Arrests of foreigners in Iran, including binationals, often accused of spying, have increased since the unilateral withdrawal in 2018 of the United States from the Iranian international nuclear agreement and the reinstatement of harsh American sanctions against Tehran.

"Three-strip billiards"

The French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, had called at the beginning of February "unbearable" the detentions of Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal. "This is not a legal process in good and due form, there is obviously no adversarial debate," said Saturday Jean-François Bayart, professor at the Institute for Advanced International Studies and Development ( IHEID) from Geneva and member of the support committee.

The anthropologist is caught in a "three-strip billiards", he added, stressing however that she remained "extremely combative, lucid and determined". In recent months, Iran has exchanged prisoners with countries holding Iranian nationals who have been convicted, awaiting trial, or are threatened with extradition to the United States.

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