Iran's Judiciary has confirmed the arrest of French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah, a day after French President Emmanuel Macron said he had raised the issue with Tehran.
Macron demanded an explanation on July 15 from Iran after the arrest last month of Adelkhah, a researcher with the prestigious Paris Institute of Political Studies, who is believed to have been arrested by the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) on suspicion of spying.
Fariba Adelkhah
"This person was detained recently...but due to the nature of the case, this is not the proper time to give any information about it," Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili told reporters on July 16.
Earlier, Macron told a news conference in Belgrade that he’s concerned over Adelkhah’s arrest.
“We were informed for several days and I had the opportunity to express not only my disagreement but my desire to have clarifications from President [Hassan] Rohani," Macron said.
Adelkhah’s arrest comes amid efforts by France to reduce tensions between Tehran and Washington over the 2015 nuclear deal, which the United States exited last year while reimposing crippling sanctions.