February 28, 2020
Iran and Germany have quietly exchanged prisoners, with Iran freeing a German that the public never knew was serving a jail term in Iran and Germany freeing an Iranian it had arrested at the request of the United States for sanctions violations.
Iran did not name the freed German, but said he was serving a three-year prison term for taking photographs. Iran did not say when he was arrested.
“On Monday [February 17], a German citizen returned home. He was arrested while ago and was sentenced to three years in jail for taking pictures from sensitive places,” Judiciary spokesman Gholam-Hossain Esmaili said in his televised weekly news conference.
Iran said that Ahmad Khalili, who was arrested in Germany on a US request and subject to extradition to the United States, flew home the previous day with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif, who had been in Germany to attend a security conference in Munich.
“We insisted that first the Iranian citizen should return home,… then the German citizen was allowed to leave Iran [the next day],” Esmaili said, implying that Iran did not trust the Germans would carry through on the deal if the German were freed first.
Esmaili also said two French academics will appear in court March 3. France has called for the release of French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah and her French colleague Roland Marchal, who had been detained since June. Both teach at Sciences Po University in Paris and lived together for decades. They have asked permission of Evin Prison’s warden to marry. Marchal is a specialist on East Africa.
Adelkhah’s lawyer told Reuters last month that Iran had dropped spying charges against her but she faced other security-related charges. Esmaili said Adelkhah faces charges of “propaganda against the system” and “colluding to commit acts against national security.” Marchal faces the charge of “colluding to commit acts against national security.”
The last prisoner exchange was in December, when Chinese-American Xiyue Wang, detained in Iran since 2016 and later charged with spying, was freed and an Iranian awaiting trial in the US pleaded guilty, was sentenced to time served and deported