Two French people were arrested in Iran, confirmed Thursday, May 12 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which denounces “unfounded arrest” and demands their “immediate release”. A national education union official had previously said that a Frenchwoman and her husband who had gone on vacation to Iran had become unreachable when they were to return to France at the start of the week.
Iran’s intelligence ministry did not specify the nationality of the two. “European teachers” who were arrested for having, according to a press release quoted on Wednesday by the official Iranian news agencies, sought to “causing chaos and social disorder with the aim of destabilizing” Iran.
The French ambassador in Tehran is trying to obtain consular access to these two people and the charge d’affaires of the Iranian embassy in Paris has been summoned to the Quai d’Orsay, the French ministry announced. Foreign Affairs in a statement.
“We have no more news from our comrade”
Christophe Lalande, federal secretary of the FNEC FP-FO (National Federation for Education, Culture and Vocational Training-Force Ouvrière), for his part told Reuters that the couple, whose wife works for his union , “was on a private tourist trip during the Easter holidays. We have no more news from our comrade..
These arrests come at a time when negotiations between Iran and international powers, including France, for a relaunch of the agreement on the Iranian nuclear program seem to have stalled.
Another Frenchman, Benjamin Brière, was sentenced earlier this year by Tehran to eight years and eight months in prison for espionage, for having taken photos of “prohibited areas” with a drone during what he has always presented as a tourist trip in the north of the country.
