France on Wednesday expelled a prominent Iranian it accuses of promoting on behalf of the country and having links to its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, his lawyer and Iranian officials said.
Bashir Biazar is reportedly a former senior figure in state TV in Iran and Paris-based activists were left frustrated by his deportation after filing a torture complaint against him last month.
Mr Biazar has been held in administrative detention since the start of June and was subject to a deportation order from the French Interior Ministry.
Mohammad Rahimi, the head of public relations for the office of the Iranian president, wrote on X that Mr Biazar "has been released and is on his way back to his homeland".
Mr Rahimi said Mr Biazar had been "illegally arrested and imprisoned in France a few weeks ago".
But a representative of the French Interior Ministry told a hearing earlier on Wednesday that Mr Biazar was an "agent of influence, an agitator who promotes the views of the Islamic Republic of Iran and, more worryingly, harasses opponents of the regime".
The representative accused him of filming journalists from Iranian opposition media in September in front of the Iranian consulate in Paris after an arson attack on the building.
Iranian-Swedish dual citizen Ahmadreza Jalali in jail in Iran - in pictures
French authorities also accused him of posting messages on social networks in connection with the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in which he denounced "Zionist dogs".
During the hearing his lawyer, Rachid Lemoudaa, said that the expulsion order was based on "assumptions" and that his client's comments fell within the scope of "freedom of expression".
"I have never been made aware of any threat whatsoever" posed by Biazar, he added.
Mr Biazar has been described by the London-based Iran International TV channel as a former official for Iranian state broadcaster IRIB.
Iranian state media have described him as a "cultural figure".
The case has emerged at a time of increased tension between Paris and Tehran, with three French citizens – described by France as "state hostages" – still imprisoned in Iran.
A fourth French detainee, Louis Arnaud, held in Iran since September 2022, was suddenly released last month.
Activist group Iran Justice and victims of human rights breaches filed the torture complaint against Mr Biazar last month in Paris.
It accuses him of complicity in torture due to his past work with IRIB, describing him as a former director of production there.
The complaint referred to the regular broadcasts by Iranian state TV of statements by, and even interviews with, Iranian or foreign prisoners, which activists regard as forced confessions.
"It is incomprehensible … that no legal proceedings have been initiated" against Mr Biazar, Chirinne Ardakani, the Paris-based lawyer behind the complaint, told AFP.
Ms Ardakani said there were "serious indications" implicating him "in the production, recording and broadcasting of forced confessions obtained clearly under torture".
"Nothing is clear in this case," she said.
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The French citizens still held in Iran are Cecile Kohler, a teacher, and her partner Jacques Paris, detained since May 2022, and another man identified only as Olivier.
Ms Kohler appeared on Iranian television in October 2022 giving comments activists said amounted to a forced confession.
Amnesty International describes her as "arbitrarily detained … amidst mounting evidence Iran's authorities are holding her hostage to compel specific action(s) by French authorities".
Meanwhile, Sweden last month released Hamid Noury, a former Iranian official it had jailed over the 1988 mass executions of dissidents in Iran, in exchange for two Swedes jailed there.
The exchange was bitterly criticised by campaigners who had fought for Noury to be bought to justice under the principle of universal jurisdiction, and by the family of Swedish citizen Ahmadreza Jalali, who faces the death penalty in Iran and was not included in the deal.
