Fariba Adelkhah Begins Hunger Strike in Evin Prison

Fariba Adelkhah, an Iranian-French researcher who has been in detention since June of this year, began a sit-in protest in front of the entrance to the women’s ward of Evin Prison in objection to being denied visits with Gabriel Marshall, her life partner.

Saeid Dehghan, Fariba Adelkhah’s defense lawyer, confirmed the news on Wednesday, January 23, to the ILNA news agency, stating that although the two have over 38 years of shared life experience in France, it appears that Evin Prison authorities have cited the lack of official marriage registration between Fariba Adelkhah and Gabriel Marshall in Iran as grounds for denying the visit.

According to Adelkhah’s defense lawyer, official registration of the marriage of the two could be a practical solution within the prison itself.

Fariba Adelkhah, an Iranian-French researcher at the Paris Foundation for Political Science Studies, was detained by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Intelligence Organization in Tehran in June of this year. Some media outlets have identified Roland Marshall as her colleague.

Previously, Voice of America reported that after the Iranian ambassador in Paris was summoned regarding the detention of Ronald Marshall and Fariba Adelkhah, two French citizens held in Iran, Abbas Mousavi, spokesman for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, announced on Sunday, December 29, that the charges against Fariba Adelkhah, a French citizen, involve “committing espionage acts.”

Reuters had earlier reported that Fariba Adelkhah had gone on a hunger strike in prison.

Iran has intensified the detention of foreign and dual nationals since the United States’ withdrawal from the JCPOA.

Currently, in addition to these two individuals, several American and non-American citizens, including Siamak and Baquer Namazi, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Ahmad Reza Jalali, and Aras Amiri, are imprisoned in Iran. There is no information available regarding the fate of Robert Levinson, another American citizen who disappeared in Iran over twelve years ago.

The U.S. State Department has repeatedly condemned the unjustified and arbitrary detention of American citizens and nationals of other countries, including Iranian dual nationals, by the Islamic Republic regime, and has called for their immediate and unconditional release.

Source: Voice of America