The year started with a slight note of hope for those close to Fariba Adelkhah. At the beginning of January, the French researcher, specialist in Iran, saw the prosecution for espionage launched against her by the Iranian justice system, while remaining the subject of less serious accusations. Two months later, the concern is stronger than ever.
The judicial horizon of Mme Adelkhah, 60, and his companion, Roland Marchal, arrested at the same time as she, in June 2019, in Tehran, seems to have darkened, Tuesday, March 3, at the start of a trial which s 'takes place in uncertain circumstances. The two Frenchmen were to be tried for "propaganda against the system" and "collusion in order to attack national security".
According to a message that The world was able to consult, Wednesday, reporting on information from Evin prison in Tehran, where the researcher is being held, counsel for Mr.me Adelkhah and Mr. Marchal, present in court, were not allowed to attend the trial. The main lawyer for the two Frenchmen, Me Said Dehghan, meanwhile, said that a request for the presence of two additional lawyers had been rejected by the judge and that Mr. Marchal had not even been transferred to court, for unknown reasons.
According to information from World, Mme Adelkhah remained silent before being brought back to prison. The trial, which was scheduled to start the same day despite the unexplained absence of one of the accused, has been postponed to an unknown date.
According to Jean-François Bayart, professor at the Graduate Institute of International Studies and Development, and member of the support committee for the two imprisoned researchers, Mr. Marchal has not been allowed to have a consular visit since the end of January, while Mme Franco-Iranian Adelkhah has never benefited from it. The Islamic Republic does not recognize dual nationality, while repeatedly using Iranian citizens with foreign passports to pressure countries of which they are nationals.
Moral distress
M’s arrestme Adelkhah and Mr. Marchal intervened after the arrest, in France, of an Iranian engineer wanted by the American justice, Jalal Rouhollah Nejad, still detained and the subject of a request for release of Tehran. The Islamic Republic also calls for the release of an Iranian diplomat, Assadollah Assadi, detained in Belgium, accused of being involved in a plan to attack a gathering of an Iranian group hostile to the Tehran regime, the People's Mojahedin . If the fate of the two researchers is linked to an exchange of prisoners, it remains pending.