France Calls on Iran to Release Jailed Researcher

France's President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech during a meeting with representatives of families of repatriates from Algeria after the country's independence war with its colonial power at the Elysee palace in Paris, Wednesday Jan. 26, 2022. (Ludovic Marin, Pool via AP)
France's President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech during a meeting with representatives of families of repatriates from Algeria after the country's independence war with its colonial power at the Elysee palace in Paris, Wednesday Jan. 26, 2022. (Ludovic Marin, Pool via AP)
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France Calls on Iran to Release Jailed Researcher

France's President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech during a meeting with representatives of families of repatriates from Algeria after the country's independence war with its colonial power at the Elysee palace in Paris, Wednesday Jan. 26, 2022. (Ludovic Marin, Pool via AP)
France's President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech during a meeting with representatives of families of repatriates from Algeria after the country's independence war with its colonial power at the Elysee palace in Paris, Wednesday Jan. 26, 2022. (Ludovic Marin, Pool via AP)

French President Emmanuel Macron called for the “immediate release” of a French-Iranian researcher imprisoned in Iran, officials said Sunday.

Macron made the plea in a “long” phone call on Saturday with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, according to a statement from the French presidency.

Fariba Adelkhah, a 62-year-old anthropologist, has been detained in Iran since June 2019. She had been under house arrest since October 2020, but was sent back to prison earlier this month, The Associated Press said.

Adelkhah was given a five-year sentence for “gathering and collusion” against Iran’s security. French authorities said her conviction is “purely political and arbitrary.”

Macron also expressed his “concerns” over the situation of another French national detained in Iran who is on a hunger strike to protest his treatment, according to the French presidency's statement.

Benjamin Brière, 36 has been sentenced to eight years in prison on what his lawyer said are trumped up espionage and propaganda charges.

Brière was arrested in May 2020 after taking pictures in a desert area where photography is prohibited and asking questions on social media about Iran’s obligatory headscarf for women.

France and other world powers are in negotiations with Iran in Vienna to revive a 2015 nuclear deal.

Macron “insisted on the need to speed up (negotiations) to quickly get tangible progress,” the statement said.

Rights groups accuse hard-liners in Iran’s security agencies of using foreign detainees as bargaining chips for money or influence in negotiations with the West. Tehran denies it, but there have been prisoner exchanges in the past.

In March 2020, Iran and France swapped French researcher Roland Marchal for Iranian engineer Jalal Ruhollahnejad.



Large Russian Drone Attack Injures Civilians in Central Ukraine

Rescuers work at the site of a residential building damaged during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the town of Dolynska, in Kirovohrad region, Ukraine, February 18, 2025. Head of Kirovohrad Regional Military Administration Andrii Raikovych via Telegram/Handout via REUTERS
Rescuers work at the site of a residential building damaged during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the town of Dolynska, in Kirovohrad region, Ukraine, February 18, 2025. Head of Kirovohrad Regional Military Administration Andrii Raikovych via Telegram/Handout via REUTERS
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Large Russian Drone Attack Injures Civilians in Central Ukraine

Rescuers work at the site of a residential building damaged during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the town of Dolynska, in Kirovohrad region, Ukraine, February 18, 2025. Head of Kirovohrad Regional Military Administration Andrii Raikovych via Telegram/Handout via REUTERS
Rescuers work at the site of a residential building damaged during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the town of Dolynska, in Kirovohrad region, Ukraine, February 18, 2025. Head of Kirovohrad Regional Military Administration Andrii Raikovych via Telegram/Handout via REUTERS

A large-scale overnight Russian drone attack hit a residential building in the city of Dolynska in central Ukraine, injuring a mother and her two children and forcing evacuations from 38 apartments, a regional official said on Tuesday.
"A difficult night for the Kirovohrad region," Andriy Raikovych, the region's governor, said in a post on the Telegram messaging app. "An enemy drone hit a high-rise building in Dolynska."
The mother and one of the children were taken to hospital, said Raikovych, who posted photos of flames bursting out of windows of a high-story apartment building.
The Ukrainian military said on Tuesday that Russia launched 176 drones in a large-scale attack.
Ukraine's air force shot down 103 of the drones and 67 did not reach their targets, probably due to electronic countermeasures, the military said.
According to Reuters, it did not specify what happened to the remaining six drones, but said that Kirovohrad, Kharkiv, Kyiv and Cherkasy regions were impacted.
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said that drone debris fell in one of the districts of the capital, causing a fire at an industrial enterprise.
Reuters could not independently verify the report. There was no immediate comment from Russia.
Both Moscow and Kyiv deny targeting civilians in the war, which Russia started with its full-scale invasion on Ukraine nearly three years ago. But thousands of civilians have died in the conflict, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.
The attack took place as top Russian and US officials are meeting in Saudi Arabia for talks - without the participation of Kyiv or its European allies - on how to end the war in Ukraine.