The French Foreign Ministry on Wednesday confirmed the detention of a Frenchman in Iran.
Arrested in May 2020, he has since been detained without explanation according to the French weekly Le Point, a new subject of tension in perspective between Paris and Tehran.
"The services of the ministry, in Tehran as in Paris, are closely monitoring the situation of our compatriot", declared the Quai d'Orsay, while a researcher with dual French and Iranian nationality, Fariba Adelkhah, is already selected in Iran since June 2019.
"Regular contacts are maintained"
"He enjoys consular protection provided for by the Vienna Convention of April 24, 1963," added the ministry.
This procedure makes it possible to verify the conditions of detention, the state of health and access to a lawyer for any French national detained abroad.
"As such, and despite the health situation, consular visits were made to him and regular contacts are maintained with him by our embassy in Tehran and with his family by our services in Paris", continued the ministry, without further ado. details of the circumstances of his arrest and detention.
According to Le Point, this French national, a 35-year-old tourist, was apprehended by Iranian security forces in a desert area on the border between Iran and Turkmenistan.
He was in Iran to tour the country by van and has since been detained in Mashhad's Vakilabad prison in the northeast of the country, the weekly said.
The French daily Le Figaro had already reported Thursday, without further details, of the arrest of a Frenchman "in the desert by handling a drone".
"Not the slightest explanation for his detention"
"This young tourist, illegally detained for about nine months, faces contradictory and false accusations," said lawyer Saïd Dehghan, who also defended Fariba Adelkhah.
The authorities have not provided the slightest file or the slightest explanation for his detention, ”adds a relative quoted by Le Point.
"He is in good health and has been able to talk to his family on the phone three times", also relates this relative.
Before the UN Human Rights Council, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Wednesday he was very “concerned” about the fate of Iranian lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, imprisoned again in Iran .
He called for the “final release” of Franco-Iranian researcher Fariba Adelkhah, during an intervention by videoconference.
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The researcher left Evin prison on October 3 and has since been under house arrest in Tehran, under the control of an electronic bracelet, with a ban on moving beyond a perimeter of 300 meters around her home, according to its support committee.