January 12th  2022

It is with great shock and indignation that we have been informed that Fariba Adelkhah, research director at CERI Sciences Po and winner of the Irène Joliot Curie Woman Scientist of the Year Award in 2020, has been re-imprisoned in the prison of Evin. She was arrested in Tehran on 5 June 2019, sentenced to five years’ imprisonment on trumped-up charges and without any proper trial, and has been under house arrest since October 2020.


The Iranian government is cynically using our colleague for external or internal purposes that remain opaque, and that have nothing to do with her activities. Fariba Adelkhah is a rigorous and independent researcher, and has consequently been a scientific prisoner for over two and a half years.

As the Covid pandemic continues in full swing, the Iranian government is deliberately endangering Fariba Adelkhah’s health and even her life. The death in custody of poet and filmmaker Baktash Abtin last Saturday is evidence of the government's inability or unwillingness to guarantee the safety of its detainees.

We call on the French authorities, the elected representatives of the French Republic, and beyond that the governments and elected representatives of Europe to act to obtain the immediate and unconditional release of their nationals arbitrarily detained by Iran.

Fariba Adelkhah's support committee