The Frenchman Olivier Rondeau, who had been detained in Iran since October 2022, “is free, in France, among his own,” announced Thursday, March 20 Emmanuel Macron, assuring that “the mobilization will not weaken” for the release of the last two French nationals still in prison in Tehran.
“We share the immense happiness and relief of his family,” said French president, about Olivier Rumbleau, 34, sentenced to Iran to five years in prison for spying on X, a sentence deemed arbitrary by the French authorities who had denounced a state hostage diplomacy on the part of Tehran.
“I thank all the state services, our ambassador to Iran and the Crisis and Support Center of the Quai d’Orsay, for their decisive action,” added the president. Olivier Rondeau arrived in France on Monday evening, the Elysée and a diplomatic source told AFP, without however, however reveal the conditions for his release.
Long and difficult negotiations
This release comes after long and difficult negotiations between the two countries and in a context of showdown between Westerners and Iran on its nuclear program. Tehran denies wanting to equip himself with the nuclear weapon although his enriched uranium reserves, approaches the threshold necessary to make it.
Olivier Rumbleau, who will celebrate his 35th birthday next week, was to carry out a battery of exams when he was very weakened in recent months, particularly in a psychological level, a government source told AFP.
“This liberation honors French diplomacy and the hard work of our embassy in Tehran, the Center for Crisis and Support and Services of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which I congratulate for their perseverance,” reacted the head of diplomacy Jean-Noël Barrot, on the same X network. “We will pursue our efforts, of which all our compations, Kohler and Jacques Paris, were released in turn, “he added.
On tourist trip
Originally from Montpellier, in the south of France, Olivier Rondeau was on a tourist trip to the city of Shiraz, in the south of Iran, when he was arrested on October 12, 2022. He was first held in Tehran, in the sadly famous prison of Evin, then in the city of Shiraz, before being transferred again last October to Evin, where the conditions of detention are detention.
Until last January, he had chosen not to publicly reveal his identity, hoping that diplomatic negotiations for his liberation between Tehran and Paris can succeed in all discretion. But he had changed his mind and had prepared a communication campaign from Evin prison, with the help of his support committee made up of friends. “In my situation, to speak is to take a risk. But as there is a risk, there is hope,” he had launched in an audio message from his cell, broadcast by Radio France.
“State hostages”
Iran, which holds several Western or binational nationals, is accused by their supporters, NGOs and Western Chancellery, of using them as a currency, even if their liberations do not give rise to any consideration. The French government has repeatedly condemned this diplomacy of “state hostages”.
Emmanuel Macron had himself recently denounced the “unworthy and arbitrary detention” of French nationals, and demanded their release. These words had provoked the ire of Tehran who had castigated “non -constructive” remarks.
The other two French people still detained are Cécile Kohler and her companion Jacques Paris, arrested on May 7, 2022, on the last day of a tourist trip to Iran, where the authorities accuse them of spying. “Our mobilization will not weaken: Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris must be released from the Iranian jails,” hammered the head of state in his message on Thursday. “All my thoughts go to them and their family on this day,” he added. They are in the process of “dying slowly”, had alerted Noémie Kohler, Cécile’s sister in early March, once again testifying “inhuman conditions” of their detention.
Louis Arnaud, a 36 -year -old consultant, had been arrested in September 2022 in Tehran, when the demonstrations of the Woman Liberty Movement began following the death in detention of the young Kurdish Mahsa Amini, accused of having violated the strict dress code of the Islamic Republic. But he had been released in June 2024, just over a year after two other French people, Benjamin Brière and Bernard Phelan, who had been released for humanitarian reasons.