France protests arrest of Ruhollah Zam and continued detention of one of its citizens in Iran
The French Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the arrest of Rouhollah Zam by the Revolutionary Guards. France also protested the continued detention in Iran of a French researcher who was arrested in June along with Fariba Adelkhah.
The French Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the arrest of Ruhollah Zam in a statement on Wednesday, October 16. The statement criticized the continued detention of Roland Marchal, a French researcher, in Iran, calling the action “unacceptable.”
The French Foreign Ministry has confirmed that Ruhollah Zam, founder of the Amadnews website, has been officially recognized as a political refugee in France.
According to Mahsa Razani, Ruhollah Zam's wife, he was "kidnapped" by Revolutionary Guard agents in Iraq and transferred to Iran.
The arrest of a Frenchman becomes public
Following a report published in the French newspaper Le Figaro, a French academic foundation confirmed that a colleague of its, Roland Marchal, was arrested in Iran in June (about four months ago) along with Fariba Adelkhah, a French-Iranian researcher.
The FASOPO University Foundation announced this news on its website, saying that until now, it had remained silent about Roland Marchal's arrest in Iran at the request of French authorities, but since this matter has become public with the publication of a recent report by the Figaro newspaper, there is no longer any reason to keep it a secret.
French authorities had hoped to negotiate with Iranian authorities to secure the release of the two arrested researchers, avoiding the "national" aspects of the matter.
They said that they have learned from experience that media coverage of arbitrary arrests in Iran not only does not help the situation of those arrested, but sometimes ends up harming them.
The French Foreign Ministry says that Iranian authorities have been repeatedly asked to establish consular contact with Fariba Adelkhah, but the Iranian government, which does not recognize dual nationality, has considered this to be interference in its internal affairs.
Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marshall are both members of an academic research foundation. The focus of both researchers' studies is the culture and traditions of the peoples and ethnic groups of the Orient.
Source: DW
