French academics call for boycott of Iran over detention of two researchers

The lawyer representing Roland Marchal and Fariba Adelkhah said Iran has given no proof of charges

A memorial exhibition featuring Iranian political prisoners and organised by opposition group the People's Mujahedin Organisation of Iran in Paris, France. Reuters

The continued detention of two French researchers by authorities in Tehran has led to calls for international academic cooperation with Iran to be suspended.

France has demanded Roland Marchal, a French senior researcher at Science-Po university and Fariba Adelkhah, his French-Iranian colleague, be released by the Iranian authorities.

An Iranian lawyer representing the two academics said that prosecutors in the country had yet to present any evidence of spying and security charges against them.

"My clients' case ... has not been sent to court yet," lawyer Saeed Dehghan was quoted as saying by the semi-official news agency ISNA on Monday.

Mr Dehghan said Ms Adelkhah, who has been in prison in Iran since June, had been accused of spying and Mr Marchal has been accused of “collusion against national security”.

"Of course, we are still negotiating with the judiciary and hope that this misunderstanding will be resolved, as there is no evidence to date for the allegations," he said.

Mr Dehghan said he had visited the two researchers in prison twice with a colleague, according to ISNA.

Mr Marchal’s detention was first publicly reported in October by French newspaper Le Figaro. He was in Iran to celebrate Eid Al Fitr with Ms Adelkhah when he was arrested, according to a statement from the African Studies Association in France.

An association of academics at Sciences Po and other universities said the disappearance of their colleagues was reported to French authorities on June 25.

Mr Marchal’s colleague at Sciences Po, Professor Richard Banegas , said he believed the two researchers were arrested around June 6. While Ms Adelkhah’s detention went public in July, Mr Marchal’s arrest was kept confidential at the recommendation of the French foreign ministry.

Writing in French daily Le Monde on Tuesday, Jean-François Bayart, professor in international politics at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, called the accusations levied against the pair as “grotesque”.

Professor Bayart called for all forms of academic and scientific cooperation with Iran to be suspended, apart from hosting Iranian students.

“By professional solidarity with Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal, but also with the 15 foreign researchers arrested under the same conditions lately,” he wrote.

British-Iranian anthropologist Kameel Ahmady is among at least two other dual nationals to be detained in Iran. It is believed he is being held in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison, where British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is being detained in the women's wing.