Iran releases French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah on furlough

Rsearcher's lawyer is hoping the latest move will be extended

Fariba Adelkhah is the latest in a long list of dual nationals detained in Iran. AFP

Iran has released French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah on furlough for five days, one day after Tehran and Washington wound up indirect talks in Vienna to revive a 2015 nuclear pact.

“We hope it [the furlough] will be extended,” her lawyer Hojjat Kermani told the Emtedad website on Tuesday,

Ms Adelkhah, a resident of France, was arrested in 2019 on national security charges while on a visit to Iran and sentenced in 2020 to five years in prison.

She was later moved to house arrest before being returned to jail in January.

Ms Adelkhah, a researcher affiliated with Paris’s prestigious Sciences Po university, denied the charges, which France called “politically motivated” as it made repeated calls for her release.

Iran does not recognise dual nationality and said the case was a domestic legal matter.

In March 2020, it released Ms Adelkhah’s partner, French academic Roland Marchal, who was detained along with her, after France freed Iranian engineer Jalal Ruhollahnejad, who was detained for allegedly breaching US sanctions against Tehran.