France expelled on Wednesday July 3 an Iranian national suspected of being a ” agent of influence ” of the Islamic Republic. The man, already under an expulsion order from the Minister of the Interior since the beginning of June, was placed in a detention center in Metz, in eastern France, before boarding a flight to Tehran in the morning.
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This Iranian, settled in France with his wife and two children until his expulsion this Wednesday, presented himself as ” a music producer ” But for the French Ministry of the Interior, it is indeed “‘an agitator, agent of influence of Tehran’ »According to French authorities, the man was linked to the Al-Quds force, a unit of the Revolutionary Guards especially active in Iran’s external operations.
Before the administrative court, the representative of the French government explained that Bashir Biazar ” harassed opponents ” to the Iranian regime on French soil. The representative thus affirmed that he had notably filmed journalists from Iranian opposition media in September in front of the Consulate of Tehran in Parisafter the arson attack on the building. The release of the video reportedly caused problems for an uncle of one of the journalists in Iran.
According to Bashir Biazar’s French lawyer, on the contrary, the Iranian national has never represented ” any threat ».
Under several procedures
Back in Iranhe will escape another procedure in France. This was triggered by Franco-Iranian activists who accused him, in a complaint filed in Paris in June, of ” complicity (…) in acts of psychological, physical torture, (of) cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment “Their lawyer, who wanted Bashir Biazar to be prosecuted in France, deplored his expulsion.
” It is incomprehensible (…) that no legal proceedings have been initiated »she told AFP, while there exists, according to her, ” serious evidence implicating this senior Iranian official, a former production manager in Iranian public broadcasting, in the production, recording and broadcasting of forced confessions clearly obtained under torture “.
In Tehran, an arrest deemed ” illegal »
In Tehran, the Iranian press has followed this affair closely in recent weeks, expressing outrage at the arrest of Bashir Biazar, which was described as ” illegal ” by the Iranian High Council for Human Rights, close to the regime. Iranian diplomacy had already promised to take the ” necessary measures » for his release. This case is taking place against a backdrop of ongoing tension between the two countries.
Three French nationals are still imprisoned in Iranconsidered by France as ” state hostages “. Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, arrested in May 2022 and accused by Tehran of being spies, as well as a man named Olivier, whose last name has not been made public, remain imprisoned in Iran. Louis Arnaud, detained since September 2022, was released last month, without any known compensation.
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