French and German citizens 'detained in Iran' ahead of Assadi sentencing

Two dual citizens were arrested two weeks ago as 'leverage' in the case

A Belgian police officer stands guard at the entrance of a court in Antwerp where Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi was found guilty of plotting to bomb an opposition rally in France. AFP

A person with dual French and Iranian citizenship and a German citizen were arrested in Iran more than two weeks ago, Le Figaro reported on Friday.

The French daily newspaper said the pair were detained before February 4 as leverage in anticipation of the sentencing of Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi in Belgium that day.

Assadi was sentenced to 20 years in jail for plotting to bomb an Iranian opposition rally in France in 2018.

The French-Iranian was arrested in the desert flying a drone, La Figaro reported.

France's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. German and Iranian officials were not immediately reachable.

The arrests, if confirmed, would come at a sensitive time. On Thursday, the US signalled that it was ready to talk to Iran about how both nations could return to a 2015 agreement aimed at preventing Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile, the wife of a detained British-Iranian dual citizen said he lost access to phone calls that provided a lifeline to the outside world for the past two weeks.

Anoosheh Ashoori, who is being held in Evin prison in Tehran, is being punished for a series of audio messages he sent from behind bars, including a set of recordings he sent to The National that revealed the plight of prisoners held in the Iranian penal system.

Sherry Ashoori said her husband's mental health was threatened by being cut off and Rob Macaire, the UK's ambassador to Iran, made representations on his behalf in recent days.

The UK, the US, France and Germany also called on Iran to release all arbitrarily detained citizens.

Rights activists accused Iran of arresting dual citizens to try to win concessions from other countries. Tehran denies that it detains people for political reasons and has accused many of the foreign citizens in its jails of espionage.