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.



New York Investigates Assaults During Ben-Gvir’s Visit

Israeli national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir (dpa) 
Israeli national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir (dpa) 
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New York Investigates Assaults During Ben-Gvir’s Visit

Israeli national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir (dpa) 
Israeli national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir (dpa) 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said on Sunday that police were investigating a series of incidents that have erupted from clashing pro-Palestinian protests and pro-Israeli counter-protests, including the reported assault on Thursday of two women by a pro-Israeli crowd.

Demonstrations have taken place in recent days during a visit to New York by far-right Israeli national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, a West Bank settler who has pressed for an intensification of US ally Israel's war in the Gaza Strip.

“The NYPD is investigating a series of incidents stemming from clashing protests on Thursday that began when a group of anti-Israel protesters surrounded the Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters - a Jewish place of worship - in Brooklyn,” Adams said on social media.

“Initial reports indicate that one female protester was isolated from her group, harassed by counter-protesters and suffered injuries. In another incident, a second woman was surrounded and subjected to vile threatening by counter-protesters,” he added.

Adams said police were working to identify those related to this assault and one person was arrested. He added “hate has no place” in New York City.

The New York Times reported that chants of “death to Arabs” were made and that in one of those incidents, hundreds of men and boys surrounded a woman while shouting racist and sexist profanities.

Rights advocates have raised concerns about rising Islamophobia, anti-Arab bias and antisemitism during Israel's war following an October 2023 attack by Palestinian Hamas militants.

Ben-Gvir also faced protests during a recent visit to Yale University and on Sunday when protesters and counter-protesters clashed near a New York City synagogue where he was expected to speak. His talk was subsequently canceled, the New York Times reported.