France foreign ministry demands immediate release of French-Iranian academic Adelkhah

Franco-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah, whom Tehran has sentenced to five years in prison but was recently living under house arrest, has once again been incarcerated, France's foreign ministry said on Wednesday, demanding her immediate release.

"The decision to re-incarcerate her, which we condemn, can only have negative consequences on the relationship between France and Iran and reduce the trust between our two countries", the ministry said in a statement.

Adelkhah, a researcher director at the Center for International Studies of Paris's Sciences Po university, had been arrested in 2019, and handed a five-year prison sentence in 2020 before being put under house arrest.