(Paris) Frenchman Louis Arnaud, who had been detained in Iran since September 2022, has been released, Emmanuel Macron announced Wednesday evening, urging Tehran to release “without delay” the three other French people still detained in this country.
“Louis Arnaud is free. He will be in France tomorrow after too long an incarceration in Iran,” the president announced in a message posted on X.
“I thank our Omani friends and all those who worked towards this happy outcome. This evening, I am also thinking of Cécile, Jacques and Olivier. I call on Iran to release them without delay,” he added, referring to the three other French people detained.
“Louis Arnaud left Evin prison at dawn on Wednesday. He saw a doctor who found that he could take the plane,” a diplomatic source told AFP. “He is currently in the Sultanate of Oman,” added this diplomatic source.
“This is a happy outcome for our compatriot,” the same source said.
The thirty-year-old, consultant, began a world tour in July 2022 which took him to Iran, “a country he had dreamed of visiting for a long time for the richness of its history and the welcome of its inhabitants”, her mother Sylvie Arnaud told us a few months ago.
His traveling companions were quickly released, but Louis Arnaud remained in prison before being sentenced last November to five years in prison for propaganda and endangering the security of the Iranian state.
His conviction was deemed “unacceptable” by Paris.
“The accusations made against him, namely propaganda and undermining the security of the Iranian state, are completely unfounded,” his mother kept insisting.
“We will obviously continue our efforts for the three French people who remain incarcerated in Iran,” the diplomatic source said.
The release of Louis Arnaud is “the result of the work that the French authorities have carried out for several months with the Iranian authorities, including the contacts of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Stéphane Séjourné with his counterpart before his death”. Iranian President Ebrahim Raïssi and his Minister of Foreign Affairs died on May 19 in a helicopter crash.
Last May, Paris denounced in a press release “the Islamic Republic’s odious practice of forced and public confessions, as well as the inhumane and undignified conditions of detention inflicted on our compatriots.”
The Quai d’Orsay, which had described these prisoners as state hostages, had requested their immediate and unconditional release.
They were then very weakened and diminished by a hunger strike.
The Islamic Republic of Iran detains more than ten Western nationals and is accused by their supporters and NGOs of using them as a bargaining chip in state-to-state negotiations.
This release came as France and its Western partners decided to toughen their tone against Tehran, which is also accused of destabilizing the Middle East.
France and the United States “are determined to exert the necessary pressure” on Iran, which is leading “an all-out escalation strategy,” Emmanuel Macron declared on Saturday alongside his American counterpart Joe Biden.
