Franco-Iranian anthropologist Fariba Adelkhah was again imprisoned in Evin prison in Iran, his support committee reported on Wednesday January 12 in a statement posted on Twitter. “We learn with amazement and indignation the reincarceration in Evin prison of Fariba Adelkhah”, he announced, denouncing actions “Cynical” Iranian power which would use the case of the researcher to “Exterior or interior purposes which remain opaque”.
Press release – urgent ? Brutal reincarceration of Fariba Adelkhah. To unfold. https://t.co/bA5vcyHbUD
“As the Covid pandemic continues to be in full swing, the Iranian government is deliberately putting the health and even the life of Fariba Adelkhah at risk. – the death in custody of the poet and director Baktash Abtin, Saturday [8 janvier], having demonstrated his inability or unwillingness to guarantee the safety of his detainees ”, judge the committee.
“The decision to return to prison, which we condemn, can only have negative consequences on the relationship between France and Iran and reduce confidence between our two countries”, the French foreign ministry said in a statement, demanding its “Immediate release”. Iran, which does not recognize dual nationality, has systematically rejected France’s calls for his release.
Pressure tactics for Iran
Arrested in June 2019 and sentenced in May 2020 to five years in prison for attacks on national security, she had been under house arrest since October 2020. Iran detains several binational nationals and another French citizen, Benjamin Brière. They are sometimes accused of espionage. In recent years, the Islamic Republic has carried out several exchanges of detainees with foreign countries.
Iran and several countries (France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, China, and the United States indirectly) relaunched talks in November 2021 to save the Iran nuclear deal. of 2015 (JCPoA), supposed to prevent Tehran from acquiring atomic weapons.
These discussions aim to bring Washington back into the pact, which left it in 2018, and to bring Tehran back to respecting its commitments, which were broken in reaction to the reinstatement of American sanctions.
This announcement concerning Mme Adelkhah comes on the same day as that of the British Council, an organization promoting British culture abroad, on the return to the United Kingdom of one of her employees, Aras Amiri, after her acquittal in Iran, where she had was convicted in 2019 for espionage.