Tuesday, December 24, after seven months in Tehran, Franco-Iranian researcher Fariba Adelkhah, who is accused of spying by the justice of the Islamic Republic, started a hunger strike with one of his fellow prisoners, the academic Australian Kylie Moore-Gilbert.
In a letter that the two women were able to send clandestinely outside the prison where they are detained and which was relayed by the organization Center for Human Rights In Iran as well as by supporters of Fariba Adelkhah in Paris , they announce that they have stopped eating "On behalf of all the academics and researchers in Iran and the Middle East who are unjustly imprisoned (…) for doing their job ".
The information was confirmed on Thursday 26 December by Jean-François Bayart, professor at the Institute for Advanced International Studies and Development and member of its support committee, based on statements by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and on elements provided by close sources. The dual nationality, French and Iranian, of Mme Adelkhah, anthropologist, director of research at Sciences Po’s International Research Center (CERI) is not recognized by Tehran.
Ceri confirms the hunger strike started by Fariba Adelkhah and his fellow inmate Kylie Moore-Gilbert. On this day of … https://t.co/e6t2c26pJX
Accused of having engaged in covert intelligence activities, Mme Adelkhah had been arrested at her home the same day as his French colleague and friend Roland Marchal, arrested for his part upon his arrival at Tehran airport. Mr. Marchal, specialist in East Africa, came to visit Mme Adelkhah. Motivated by charges similar to those against his colleague, his arrest and imprisonment were not made public until October.
"Psychological torture"
In the letter signed by Fariba Adelkhah and her Australian colleague – also accused of espionage -, the Franco-Iranian researcher complains of acts of "Psychological torture" committed against them. A testimony from the prison and transmitted to the World also reports temporary hunger strikes observed in solidarity with the two prisoners by other women detained in the same place.
The arrest – and detention – of binationals and foreigners is a lever commonly used by Tehran to pressure its opponents or to secure the release of some of its nationals. However, the detention of the two academics – Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal -, qualified "Intolerable" by French President Emmanuel Macron on December 10, is part of the particular context of an now dormant attempt at French mediation between Washington and Tehran.
