A French person imprisoned in Iran for more than 880 days has been released and returned home, as has another French citizen held under house detention in Tehran, French officials announced on Thursday.
Their liberation occurred as France and the rest of Europe attempted to restart talks with Iran over its fast expanding nuclear programme. French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed online that Frenchman Olivier Grondeau had been released.
According to the French Foreign Ministry, another French person who had been held in house detention in Tehran for more than four months was released on Wednesday night. He requested anonymity, according to the ministry. The release came before of Nowruz, the Persian New Year, during which Iran has previously released inmates.
Grondeau spoke to a French television from prison in January, alluding to the politics behind his detention at the time. “You become a human who has been stocked away indefinitely because one government is seeking to exert pressure on another,” according to him.
His lawyer in France, Chirinne Ardakani, confirmed that he returned to Paris on Monday. “He is in good hands. “He is recovering,” the attorney told The Associated Press. An Iranian court condemned Grondeau, a backpacker and world traveler, to five years in prison on espionage allegations that he, his family, and the French government all disputed.
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