Iran sends French-Iranian academic back to prison: supporters

0
162

PARIS
Iran has sent back to prison from house arrest French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah, her Paris-based support group said Wednesday, a shock development in the midst of hugely delicate talks on the Iranian nuclear drive.
Adelkhah was sentenced in May 2020 to five years in prison for conspiring against national security, accusations her supporters have always denounced as absurd.
She is one of at least a dozen Western nationals believed to be held in Iran who activists say are being held as hostages at the behest of the elite Revolutionary Guards to extract concessions from the West.
With talks ongoing in Vienna aimed at salvaging the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, the French foreign ministry warned the move would damage bilateral relations and trust.

“It is with great shock and indignation that we have been informed that Fariba Adelkhah… has been re-imprisoned in the prison of Evin” in Tehran, the committee set up to support her said in a statement.

“The Iranian government is cynically using our colleague for external or internal purposes that remain opaque, and that have nothing to do with her activities,” it added.