France: Iran denies consular access to Fariba Adelkhah
The French Foreign Ministry has announced that the Islamic Republic will not grant consular access to imprisoned Iranian-French researcher Fariba Adelkhah.
The French Foreign Ministry has announced that the country has repeatedly requested permission to meet with Fariba Adelkhah and called for her release.
Fariba Adelkhah, an Iranian-French researcher, was arrested in Iran on June 7. Adelkhah holds a degree in sociology from the University of Strasbourg in France and a doctorate from the École des Sciences Sociales in Paris. She has researched mainly in the field of women’s issues.
Previously, Ali Rabiei, a spokesman for the Iranian government, had said that he was unaware of the arresting agency or the reasons for Adelkhah's arrest.
Several French people have been arrested in Iran in the past decade, and Iran has released them through negotiations and sometimes through prisoner exchanges. One such case was the release of French student Clotilde Reiss, who was arrested on the sidelines of the 2009 Iranian protests and was eventually exchanged with Ali Vakili-Rad, accused of murdering Shapour Bakhtiar, and Majid Kakavand, accused of cooperating in arms trade with Iran.
The Islamic Republic has recently arrested Kamil Ahmadi, an Iranian-British researcher.
The arrest of dual nationals is a common occurrence in Iran, and Western analysts say the Islamic Republic uses dual nationals as hostages to obtain money and privileges from Western governments.
In addition to Zhiyu Wang, a number of American and non-American citizens are currently imprisoned in Iran – including Siamak and Bagher Namazi, Michael White, and Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. The fate of Robert Levinson, another American citizen who disappeared in Iran more than twelve years ago, is also unknown.
The United States Department of State has repeatedly condemned the Islamic Republic's regime's arbitrary and unjustified detention of American and other citizens, including dual-national Iranians, and called for their immediate and unconditional release.
Source: Voice of America
