Iran Releases Jailed French-Iranian Scholar on Furlough
Iran Releases Jailed French-Iranian Scholar on Furlough
(Bloomberg) -- A French-Iranian academic serving a five-year prison sentence in Tehran has been released on furlough, her lawyer said.
Fariba Adelkhah was arrested by Iranian authorities in June 2019 on charges of spreading propaganda and endangering national security. France has repeatedly condemned her detention and called on Iran to release her.
Adeklhah was released on furlough from Evin prison on Saturday with an electronic tag and is staying with family in the capital, attorney Saeid Dehghan said in a phone interview. He had requested earlier that she be granted leave on health grounds because of kidney problems brought on by a hunger strike last December as well as concerns over the coronavirus, he said.
“No time has been set for her return to prison, but we’re hoping the furlough will be extended until she’s released,” Dehghan said. Her sentence is due to end in June 2024.
In March some 85,000 prisoners in Iran, including British-Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, were released on furlough following a major outbreak of the coronavirus in the country.
At the time Roland Marchal, a French scholar who had been arrested with Adelkhah, was released and returned to France in a prisoner exchange in which an Iranian engineer was released by French authorities.
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