{"id":1618,"date":"2020-05-17T15:05:36","date_gmt":"2020-05-17T15:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=1618"},"modified":"2020-05-17T15:05:41","modified_gmt":"2020-05-17T15:05:41","slug":"iran-sentences-french-iranian-academic-to-6-years-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=1618","title":{"rendered":"Iran Sentences French-Iranian Academic to 6 Years in Prison"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong>Fariba Adelkhah has been detained north of Tehran since 2019.<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/iransos.com\/en\/photo\/2011\/f\/fariba-adelkhah.jpg\" width=\"576\" height=\"323\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Fariba Adelkhah in 2012. She is an expert on Shia Islam at Sciences Po in Paris, with French and Iranian citizenship, and was detained in Tehran last June. <span style=\"color: #808080;\">Credit&#8230;Thomas Arrive\/Sciences Po, via Agence France-Presse \u2014 Getty Images<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">The New York Times &#8211; <\/span><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong>By\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/elian-peltier\"><strong>Elian Peltier<\/strong><\/a> &#8211; May 16, 2020 -PARIS \u2014 A French-Iranian academic who has been detained in Iran for almost a year was sentenced on Saturday to six years in prison on national security charges, according to her lawyer.<!--more-->The academic, Fariba Adelkhah, was sentenced \u201cto five years jail for gathering and conspiring against Iran\u2019s national security,\u201d the lawyer, Saeid Dehghan, told Reuters, adding that she was also given a one-year jail term \u201cfor propaganda against the Islamic Republic.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Mr. Dehghan\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/vakilroaya\/status\/1261553076638449664\">wrote on Twitter<\/a>\u00a0that his client would appeal the decision. He could not be immediately reached for comment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Iran has arrested dozens of dual citizens on espionage charges in recent years, regularly using their release as a bargaining chip to seek the repatriation of Iranian prisoners in other countries. Ms. Adelkhah, who was arrested in Tehran in June 2019, was also accused of espionage, which is punishable by death, but those charges were lifted earlier this year. The national security charges, however, were upheld.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Ms. Adelkhah\u2019s partner, a fellow academic, Roland Marchal, was arrested alongside her, but was\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/03\/21\/world\/middleeast\/prisoner-swap-france-iran.html\">released as part of a prisoner swap in March<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Ms. Adelkhah has been detained in Evin prison, north of Tehran, where the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/07\/17\/world\/middleeast\/nazanin-zaghari-ratcliffe-iran-hospital.html\">British-Iranian national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe<\/a>\u00a0was also imprisoned. An employee of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in 2016 and sentenced to five years in prison on charges of plotting against the Iranian government. She and her family have strenuously denied the charges.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">In March, Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe was temporarily released over fears that the coronavirus was spreading in Iranian prisons. Iran released more than 85,000 prisoners in March in response to the pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Last year, an Iranian employee of the British Council,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/05\/03\/world\/middleeast\/british-iranians-arrested-iran.html\">Aras Amiri<\/a>, was sentenced in Iran to 10 years in prison. In 2018, a British-Australian researcher,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/01\/21\/world\/middleeast\/iran-uk-prisoner-letters.html\">Kylie Moore-Gilbert<\/a>, was also sentenced to 10 years on charges of espionage.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Ms. Adelkhah, 61, is an expert on Shia Islam at the Center for International Studies at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/en\/facts-about-fariba-adelkhah-roland-marchal-what-we-know\">Sciences Po Paris<\/a>, and had been researching Iran for three decades when she was arrested alongside Mr. Marchal, who went back to work at the center in Paris this past week.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Ms. Adelkhah\u2019s detention has strained relationships between France and Iran at a time when President Emmanuel Macron has\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/09\/02\/world\/middleeast\/iran-france-nuclear-deal.html\">tried to defuse tensions between Washington and Tehran<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/09\/30\/world\/middleeast\/iran-trump-rouhani-call-macron.html\">mostly without success<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">Ms. Adelkhah\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/en\/facts-about-fariba-adelkhah-roland-marchal-what-we-know\">was hospitalized earlier this year, according<\/a>\u00a0to her lawyer, after she\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencespo.fr\/en\/news\/news\/fariba-adelkhah-on-hunger-strike\/4513\">began a hunger strike<\/a>\u00a0in December with Ms. Moore-Gilbert, the British-Australian academic. The French authorities have\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.diplomatie.gouv.fr\/en\/country-files\/iran\/news\/article\/iran-situation-of-fariba-adelkah-and-roland-marchal-q-a-from-the-press-briefing\">repeatedly expressed concern<\/a>\u00a0over the state of her health.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">France\u2019s foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, condemned the sentencing on Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">\u201cThis sentencing is not based on any serious element or fact and is thus a political decision,\u201d Mr. Le Drien said in a statement sent by the Foreign Ministry. \u201cWe are urging the Iranian authorities to immediately release Ms. Adelkhah.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fariba Adelkhah has been detained north of Tehran since 2019. Fariba Adelkhah in 2012. She is an expert on Shia Islam at Sciences Po in Paris, with French and Iranian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[498],"class_list":["post-1618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women-kids","tag-fariba-adelkhah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1618"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1620,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1618\/revisions\/1620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}