Iran sentences French-Iranian academic to six years in prison – lawyer, Kim Willsher, 16 May 2020

Fariba Adelkhah to appeal against sentence over security breaches and propaganda

Iran has sentenced a French-Iranian academic to a maximum sentence of six years in prison on charges of breaching national security and spreading propaganda against the country.

Fariba Adelkhah, an anthropologist and researcher at the Centre for International Research (CERI) at the Paris political institute Sciences Po, has been held at Evin jail, north of Tehran, since last June.

She was initially charged with spying but this was dropped in January. The Iranian authorities continued to hold her on other charges.

On Saturday, it was announced she had been given a five-year jail sentence for “colluding with the aim of breaching national security” and a further one-year term for “propaganda against the system”, but was told she would only serve the longer sentence.Iran ‘frees French researcher under prisoner exchange deal’Read more

Adelkhah, 61, weakened by a 49-day hunger strike at the beginning of the year, is a specialist in Shia Islam. Her lawyer, Saeid Dehghan, had hoped she would be released after her appearance in court in Tehran on 19 April.

Her colleague and partner Roland Marchal, who had flown to the Iranian capital in June 2019 to visit her and was arrested at Tehran airport, was released at the end of March. Marchal was freed 48 hours after France reportedly released an Iranian engineer, Jalal Rohollahnejad, threatened with extradition to the US over allegations he broke sanctions against Iran. READ HERE