This is a rare positive signal in a particularly sensitive dossier, which combines Franco-Iranian relations and the regional crisis. Iranian judicial authorities have dropped charges of espionage against Franco-Iranian researcher Fariba Adelkhah. The anthropologist, specialist in Shiism at the Center for International Research (CERI) at Sciences Po, has been detained since June 2019 in Iran. His arrest took place at the same time as that of his colleague and friend Roland Marchal, an East African specialist at CERI, who came to visit him in Tehran.
Mme Adelkhah was transferred from the wing of the Evin prison controlled by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards to the wing of ordinary prisoners, according to Jean-François Bayart, professor at the Institute for Advanced International Studies and development and member of its support committee in Paris. "This is an important step because it allows Mme Adelkhah to receive family members »he said.
According to Mr. Bayart, Mme Adelkhah was thus able to benefit from a visit from his relatives, the only one he had been granted since the beginning of his detention. The researcher however decided to continue the hunger strike she started on Christmas Eve to demand her release and "On behalf of all the academics and researchers in Iran and the Middle East who are unjustly imprisoned."
Dual nationality not recognized
The drop of the Iranian criminal charges of espionage eliminates the risk of the death penalty. Mme Adelkhah remains prosecuted for "Propaganda against the system" and "Collusion to harm national security", a charge which also hangs over his French colleague. "Roland Marchal's file follows a calendar slightly different from that of Fariba Adelkhah, a decision concerning him could be made quickly", specifies Mr. Bayart.
In contrast, Australian researcher Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who declared herself on hunger strike at the same time as Mme Adelkhah, in a joint letter that the two women managed to get out of the prison, remains detained in the wing controlled by the Revolutionary Guards, according to information from the support committee of Mme Adelkhah.
Should this be seen as a preferential treatment granted by Tehran to the French national in a desire to evacuate a point of friction with Paris, while the Islamic Republic is engaged in an escalation with an uncertain outcome against the United States since the assassination of Iranian general Ghassem Soleimani on January 3 in Baghdad? The Quai d´Orsay remains very reserved as to the interpretation of this first positive gesture.
