Iran drops espionage charge against prominent French-Iranian scholar
Iran has dropped an espionage charge against French-Iranian scholar Fariba Adelkhah, who has been detained in the country since last summer, her lawyer told the AFP news agency on Tuesday.
Adelkhan, a prominent researcher in anthropology and social sciences at the prestigious Sciences Po university in Paris, was arrested in Iran in June 2019 by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for spying.
“The espionage charge has been dropped,” said her lawyer Said Dehghan, who welcomed Iran’s decision to lift the charge, which carries the death penalty.
Dehghan said the prosecution had also dropped its case against Adelkhan for “disturbing the public order”.
New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch
Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters
Adelkhan, who specialises on Iran and Shia Islam, still faces two other charges: spreading “propaganda against the political system” of the Islamic Republic and “conspiracy against national security”.
Adelkhan’s arrest comes at a time when France and other European powers are caught up in an international standoff over Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal, which the United States abandoned in 2018.
Rights activists have accused Iran of arresting a number of dual nationals to try and win concessions from other countries - a charge that the Islamic Republic has regularly dismissed.
Adelkhah is the latest Iranian national also holding a western passport to be arrested in Iran.
British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was sentenced to five years in jail for sedition aftering being arrested at a Tehran airport in 2016 as she headed back to Britain with her daughter after a family visit.
Last month, she was denied conditional release by Iran's prosecutor-general.
Meanwhile dual Iranian-American nationals Siamak Namazi and his father Baquer are serving 10-year sentences for espionage.
Middle East Eye delivers independent and unrivalled coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. To learn more about republishing this content and the associated fees, please fill out this form. More about MEE can be found here.
