France summons Iran envoy over 'intolerable' detention of academics

France's foreign ministry on Friday said it had summoned the Iranian ambassador over the "intolerable" detention of two French academics, expressing "grave concern" that one was now on hunger strike.

The envoy "was reminded of France's demand that Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal are released without delay and that the Iranian authorities show total transparency over their situation," it said in a statement.

Adelkhah and Marchal, both academics at Sciences Po in Paris, have been held by the Iranian authorities since June. The university said this month that Adelkhah and another detained academic, Australian Kylie Moore-Gilbert, had started a hunger strike.