Iran drops espionage charge for detained French academic

TEHRAN - Iran has dropped espionage charges that had been laid against an Iranian-French academic detained in the Islamic republic since last year, her lawyer said on Tuesday, but she and another French researcher still face other security-related charges.

Iranian prosecutors dropped the spying charges against Fariba Adelkhah after an hours-long hearing, lawyer Saeid Dehghan said. Both Adelkhah and her colleague Roland Marchal will remain in custody on charges of spreading propaganda, he said.

"The espionage charge has been dropped" for Sciences Po University academic Fariba Adelkhah, Dehghan said, adding that he welcomed the decision to lift the charge which carries the death penalty.

Adelkhah still faces two other charges: spreading "propaganda against the political system" of the Islamic republic; and "conspiracy against national security".

Dehghan said the prosecution had dropped its case against her for "disturbing the public order".

Adelkhah, expert on Iran and Shiite Islam, was arrested in Tehran in June last year. Marchal was arrested in the same month while visiting Adelkhah.

Iran does not recognise dual nationality and has repeatedly rebuffed calls from foreign governments for consular access to those it has detained during legal proceedings.

It accused France of "interference" in December after the French foreign ministry summoned Iran's ambassador to Paris to protest the imprisonment of Adelkhah and Marchal.

Their detention added to distrust between Tehran and Paris at a time when French President Emmanuel Macron has been seeking to play a leading role in defusing tensions between Iran and the United States.

The French pair are not the only foreign academics behind bars in Iran.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert of the University of Melbourne is also imprisoned in the country.

Canberra expressed "deep concern" over the Australian academic's case when she reportedly began a hunger strike on Christmas Eve after losing an appeal against a 10-year jail sentence. Sciences Po said at the time that Adelkhah had also begun a hunger strike.

The strike was revealed by the Center for Human Rights in Iran. They were confirmed by Sciences Po’s research center CERI, where Adelkhah works. Adelkhah's lawyer did not say if she remained on hunger strike.

Two Australians were freed from Iran in October while Australia freed an Iranian in what appeared to be a prisoner swap.

Meanwhile, Iran had indicated a willingness to make prisoner exchanges with the United States after freeing a Chinese-American scholar from Princeton held for three years in a prisoner swap.

However, these moves all came prior to the US killing of Iran's top general last week, which has dramatically increased tensions between Washington and Tehran.