A very sad anniversary for Fariba Adelkah. "On June 5, 2019, Ms. Fariba Adelkhah, a researcher at the Center for International Research (CERI) at Sciences Po was incarcerated in Evin prison in Iran", recalled Friday, June 5 on this occasion, the head of French diplomacy, Jean-Yves Le Drian, in a press release.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs took the opportunity to demand his release again. "Today, I formally reiterate France's demand for the immediate release by Iran of Mrs. Adelkhah", he announces, adding that "the continuation of this situation can only have a negative impact on the bilateral relationship between France and Iran, and substantially reduces trust between our two countries ".
A year ago, Fariba Adelkhah was arbitrarily arrested in Iran. It is unacceptable that she is still in prison. My message to the Iranian authorities: justice requires that our compatriot be immediately released.
- Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) June 5, 2020Rejection of calls from France
Renowned anthropologist, research director at CERI, Fariba Adelkhah, who is 60 years old, was arrested with another French researcher, his companion Roland Marchal, who was released in March 2020. Incarcerated in Evin prison in Tehran , this specialist in Shiism, born in Iran in 1959 and living in France since 1977, has always claimed her innocence.
Iran, which does not recognize the dual nationality of Fariba Adelkhah and has rejected France's numerous calls for her release, in January dropped the initial charges of espionage against the researcher, but condemned her for the month the last to five years in prison for collusion to attack Iranian national security and propaganda against the Islamic Republic.
Hostage for “bargaining purposes”
Iranian lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi believes that Franco-Iranian researcher Fariba Adelkhah is "hostage" to the Iranian authorities for the purpose of haggling to "release her own prisoners, receive money or other". And to continue, "she did not commit any crime," she said in a video released Friday by Sciences Po Paris, which employs the researcher. "The trial which has been made to her is unfair," continued the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, noting that the researcher "was not entitled to a lawyer during the first months of her imprisonment and during her interrogations".
One year after his arrest, the Paris City Hall will display the portrait of the anthropologist on its facade in the morning. Sciences Po Paris also held a banner on its own with the words "Fariba Adelkhah, researcher. Imprisoned in Iran since June 5, 2019. Her fight for freedom is ours". However, no assembly is planned due to the health constraints linked to the Covid-19 crisis.
About fifteen foreigners, often binational, have been arrested and sentenced in similar circumstances in recent years, according to the support committee of Fariba Adelkhah.
With Reuters and AFP
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