TEHRAN – Iran’s Ministry of Justice Spokesman Askar Jahangir said the French government has not fulfilled its promise to release Iranian scholar Mahdiye Esfandiari.
“At some point, they said that if a suitable location was designated, they would release her to remain there. The Iranian embassy in France took similar steps, but France refused to honor its promise,” Jahangir explained.
He added that Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the judiciary are cooperating well to ensure Mahdiye Esfandiari’s freedom.
“In our opinion, supporting the Palestinian people and expressing opposition to the genocide in Gaza is a legitimate act in line with the protection of human rights and cannot be considered a crime,” the spokesperson said. He added that Iran is seriously pursuing the matter through Esfandiari’s lawyers.
“The Human Rights Commission is also working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to secure her unconditional release and looks forward to the French government ending her illegal detention,” he added.
The arbitrary and illegal detention of Iranian scholar Mahdiye Esfandiari in France has revealed a new dimension of “double standards” and “political hypocrisy” in the so-called homeland of human rights and freedom of expression.
This particular incident has gone beyond a personal issue and has become a global symbol exposing the deceptions of the West.
The Iranian national has been held in a prison on the outskirts of Paris for months without any legal basis, but Iranian judiciary officials have announced that they have acquitted Renard Monterlos, a young French-German man arrested in June on charges of espionage in Iran.
The news comes as Paris and the Iranian government are negotiating the release of Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, who are also imprisoned in Iran on espionage charges, in exchange for the release of Iranian national Mahdiye Esfandiari, who was falsely accused of “glorifying terrorism.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a recent television interview that an exchange deal between French prisoners and Iranian academics was nearing the “final stage”.
The Esfandiari incident highlights the blatant violation of women’s rights in France and the complete lack of freedom of expression, and exposes the empty rhetoric of the Elysée leadership.
Mr. Esfandiari has been imprisoned in Fresnes, south of Paris, since March 2 for his social media posts condemning the genocide in Gaza and expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people.
However, her case is not isolated and fits into a broader pattern of manipulating “freedom of expression” for political blackmail and hostage purposes.
On March 2, 2025, Esfandiari (39), an Iranian academic living in Lyon, was arrested by French security authorities after his home was raided by surprise. Her family described the incident as a kidnapping or hostage-taking, saying police arrived unannounced, took her away in a van, and held her for several months without charge or legal assistance.
Her arrest was not a criminal or civil rights matter. No evidence of wrongdoing has been presented, and the accusations against her (vaguely phrased as “glorifying terrorism”) lack any factual or legal basis, making the case highly questionable.
Her only “crime” was defending the rights of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, who, with French support, had endured a modern-day holocaust at the hands of the Israeli regime.
Under French law, detention for more than 48 hours without a judicial warrant is illegal. But Esfandiari has now spent 226 days in prison on vague charges of “endangering national security.”
No concrete evidence has been submitted to support these false claims. Her detention violates the guarantees set out in the French Code of Criminal Procedure and the European Convention on Human Rights.