The head of state announced on Saturday March 21 the release by Iran of the French researcher imprisoned since June 2019 and called for the "Immediate release" of the Franco-Iranian Fariba Adelkhah still imprisoned on Iranian soil.
Roland Marchal should arrive in Paris in the middle of the day. This African specialist was accused of " collusion to undermine national security ", A crime punishable by two to five years in prison. Emmanuel Macron "Is pleased to announce the release of Mr. Roland Marchal imprisoned in Iran since June 2019. He will arrive in France this Saturday March 21 in the middle of the day", said the French presidency in a press release.
"The President of the Republic urges the Iranian authorities to immediately release our compatriot Fariba Adelkhah still imprisoned in Iran", she adds. The main charge against the Franco-Iranian anthropologist, that of espionage punishable by the death penalty, was dropped on January 6. A positive signal. However, she remains charged with"Endangering national security" and of "Propaganda against the Islamic Republic".
Agreement found
The prospect of Roland Marchal’s release was reinforced on Friday with news in the Iranian press – but without official confirmation from French authorities – of an agreement reached between Paris and Tehran on an exchange of prisoners.
The public television channel IRIB had announced in the evening the release of the 64-year-old researcher in exchange for that of Jalal Ruhollahnejad, an Iranian engineer whose United States demanded the extradition for violation of the system of sanctions imposed by Washington on the Islamic Republic. Denouncing interference in its internal affairs, Iran has so far rejected France's calls for the release of Roland Marchal and Fariba Adelkhah, detentions qualified as ’"Intolerable" by Emmanuel Macron in December.
Fariba Adelkhah, 60, was arrested on June 5, 2019, the same day as his colleague and friend Roland Marchal, an East African specialist at the Center for International Research (CERI), who visited him in the Iranian capital. On December 24, she went on a hunger strike along with an Australian fellow student, Kylie Moore-Gilbert, which she ended in early February.