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Iran rejects France’s threats, says will brook no meddling in its judicial affairs

This handout picture taken in 2012 in an unknown location and released on July 16, 2019 by Sciences Po university shows Fariba Adelkhah. (Via AFP)

Iran’s Foreign Ministry rejects France’s “meddlesome” remarks regarding the case of an Iranian national, saying Tehran will brook no interference in its judicial affairs.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will not tolerate at all any discrediting of its principles of governance, including independence of its judiciary,” the ministry spokesman, Abbas Mousavi, said on Wednesday.

Mousavi said that under Iran’s Constitution, the Judiciary is a totally independent body, warning that a one-sided interpretation of independent judicial rulings would not serve the relations between Iran and France.

The remarks came a day after France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced his country would take a tougher stance with Iran after Tehran sentenced an Iranian-French academic to prison.

He claimed that the sentencing was founded on no serious elements and was politically-motivated, urging the Iranian authorities to release Fariba Adelkhah without delay.

Adelkhah, a 60-year-old anthropologist and researcher at Sciences Po's Center for International Studies (CERI) in Paris, was arrested in Iran in June 2019 on espionage charges.

Mousavi said the investigation of the "crimes of Iranian citizens" is solely within the jurisdiction of the "Iranian courts," and added that the case in question has been heard in court, and stressed that Adelkhah has enjoyed her citizenship rights.

“The verdict has been issued by a lower court and Ms. Adelkhah can appeal it through legal channels,” he added.

In October last year, Mousavi said that Iran’s national law does not recognize the dual citizenship of Iranian citizens, and thus Adelkhah is regarded as an Iranian national.

He, however, said that as an Iranian national, she enjoys full citizenship rights, adding that the Iranian Judiciary is carefully pursuing her case within the framework of the country’s fair trial law.


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