Question 21833 — foreign policy

Summary

Mr. Jean François Mbaye questions the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs on the situation of Ms. Fariba Adelkhah. Le July 14, 2019, the spokesperson for the Iranian government confirmed the arrest of Franco-Iranian researcher Fariba Adelkhah. This announcement came after a long silence on the part of the person concerned, who has not given any sign of life since June 5, 2019. As for the reasons for this arrest, the statements from Tehran remain sibylline for the moment. Given a context characterized by the increase in diplomatic tensions between Iran and Western powers, first and foremost the United States of Donald Trump, we can nevertheless envisage the hypothesis where the arrest of Ms. Adelkhah would be part of a process aimed at destabilizing the efforts undertaken by France in order to calm their escalation. In support of this interpretation, the arrest in 2015 of the American journalist Jason Rezaian, accused of espionage then conveniently released by the Iranian justice system on the occasion of the lifting in 2016 of part of the international sanctions then hitting the Islamic Republic. Beyond the real or supposed reasons for this arrest, the question of the conditions of detention of Ms. Adelkhah. Il arises. It is indeed appropriate to remember the testimony given by the French academic Clotilde Reiss in 2010, at the end of 47 days of detention in Evin prison: an 8 m² cell shared by four inmates and equipped with a simple tap, interrogation methods established on the basis of psychological persecution, all resulting in a trial flouting all the rights to which any defendant should be able to claim, even accused of the most serious crimes. Monday July 15, 2019, the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron said he was concerned about this situation, and confirmed that he had contacted his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani in order to obtain clarifications regarding the situation of Ms. Adelkhah. Dans the extension of these declarations, the Quai d'Orsay seems to have made approaches to the Iranian authorities in order to gather information on the conditions of the arrest of the academic as well as to obtain consular access. He therefore wishes to obtain more information from her regarding the initiatives undertaken by his ministry in order to resolve a situation which, if the suspicions surrounding it were to be proven, would seriously undermine the most fundamental rights of a French citizen.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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