As of 5 June 2020, Fariba Adelkhah, researcher at the CERI Sciences Po, has been in prison in Iran for one year. Read the letter sent by Olivier Duhamel, President of the FNSP, and Frédéric Mion, President of Sciences Po to our communities on 5 June 2020.

On the day of this anniversary, Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, called for Fariba Adelkhah's liberation:

What has happened since Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal's arrest on 5 June 2019?

Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal, both researchers at Sciences Po, were arrested in Iran on 5 June 2019. On March 20, 2020, Roland Marchal was released and returned to France. To this day, Fariba Adelkhah remains incarcerated at Evin Prison, in the north of Tehran.

Where and why is Fariba Adelkhah being held and under what conditions?

Fariba Adelkhah is being detained at Evin Prison, situated in the north of Tehran. Roland Marchal was also incarcerated in the same prison.

Fariba Adelkhah was initially charged with espionage, punishable by death penalty, but this charge was dropped on 6 January 2020. The other charges against Fariba Adelkah are: "propaganda against the political system of the Islamic Republic" and "collusion to endanger national security". Only this last count was brought against Roland Marchal (who was not officially acquitted but released in exchange for the release of an Iranian engineer detained in France). Fariba Adelkhah's trial, which was originally due to start on 3 March 2020, before the 15th chamber of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, was postponed to 18 April 2020. A sentence was then issued on 16 May 2020.

Fariba Adelkhah has been able to receive a few visits from her family and her lawyer, but the authorities do not recognise her dual nationality, so she has not been able to benefit from any French consular assistance, unlike Roland Marchal.

On December 24, 2019, Fariba Adelkhah began a hunger strike, together with Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert, also imprisoned for fifteen months in Iran. Fariba Adelkhah ended her hunger strike on 12 February 2020. Worried about her alarming state of health, the Support Committee for the two researchers wrote to her asking her to end it. She was admitted on 23 February to Evin Prison Hospital. Fariba Adelkhah suffered from severe kidney damage following her 49-day hunger strike.

In March 2020, Fariba Adelkhah was able to see one of her sisters through a glass window. Though she seemed to be doing better physically, she continued to be appalled by the way she and her fellow prisoners are treated in prison. After this meeting, which allowed her to have some news about Roland, she decided to stop her sit-in (bast) and returned to her cell where she can benefit from the support of fellow academic prisoners.

In April 2020, Fariba Adelkhah was appointed chief librarian of the Evin Prison Library.

On 16 May 2020, Fariba Adelkhah was sentenced to six years in prison by the 15th Chamber of the Tehran Court. Read the letter sent by Olivier Duhamel, President of the FNSP, and Frédéric Mion, President of Sciences Po, to Sciences Po communities on 16 May 2020.

What steps have been taken by Sciences Po and the French authorities since their incarceration?

Upon receiving news of the arrests of Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal, our institution immediately implemented a series of actions in close collaboration with the Crisis and Support Centre of the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE) and the CNRS.

With the help of the MEAE, we have ensured that both Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal receive the assistance of a highly experienced Iranian lawyer. Approved by the Iranian judicial authorities, this lawyer, therefore, assures that both receive a defence that is both watertight and officially authorised.

A series of events were organised at Sciences Po to raise awareness on the incarceration of the two researchers. A Support Committee was created and a petition was written demanding their immediate release.

On the day that Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal's trial was meant to begin, an assembly took place at Sciences Po in front of 27, rue Saint-Guillaume, in support of the imprisoned researchers. The trial ended up being postponed.

On 5 June 2020, which marked 1 year of Fariba Adelkhah's incarceration, her portrait was hung up on the facade of the Paris City Hall. (Video in French).

Working within the context of Iran’s particularly complex political climate, Sciences Po and the French authorities are putting every possible action in place to liberate Fariba Adelkhah.