French academic Fariba Adelkhah temporarily released in Iran

Franco-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah has been temporarily released from prison and is currently in Tehran with an electronic bracelet, her lawyer told journalists on Saturday.

Adelkhah "was released with an electronic bracelet. She is now with her family in Tehran," attorney Saeed Dehghan said, adding that "we hope that this temporary release will become final."

Iran’s judiciary upheld in June her five-year jail sentence, handed down the previous months for “security charges including conspiring against national security”.[embed:render:embedded:node:24587]

A research director at Sciences Po university in Paris, Adelkhah was arrested in 2019 and has been in custody ever since. She is a dual French-Iranian citizen, a status Iran does not recognise.

Her French colleague and partner Roland Marchal, who was detained around the same time while visiting her in Tehran, was freed in March in an apparent prisoner swap. Marchal was freed after France released Iranian engineer Jallal Rohollahnejad, who faced extradition to the United States over accusations he violated US sanctions against Iran.

Adelkhah and Marchal’s cases have been a thorn in relations between Tehran and Paris for months.    (FRANCE 24/ AFP)