Call for academic boycott of Iran over detention of two French researchers

The continued detention of two French researchers by Iran has led to calls for international academic co-operation with the country to be suspended.

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

An Iranian lawyer representing the two said that prosecutors had yet to present any evidence supporting the security charges against them.

“My clients’ case … has not been sent to court yet,” lawyer Saeed Dehghan told the Isna news agency on Monday. Mr Dehghan said Ms Adelkhah 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 Marchal’s detention was first reported in October by French newspaper Le Figaro. He was in Iran to celebrate Eid Al Fitr with Ms Adelkhah when he was arrested, the African Studies Association in France said.

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, Prof Richard Banegas, said he believed the two were arrested about 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.

In French daily Le Monde yesterday, Jean-Francois Bayart, professor in international politics at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, called for all forms of academic and scientific co-operation 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 detained in Iran. It is believed he is being held at Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison, where British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is being detained in the women’s wing.