This photo provided by the The Crisis and Support Centre of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs on Thursday, March 20, 2025 shows France's Olivier Grondeau sitting in a plane after being freed by Iran. (MEAE/CDCS via AP)
This photo provided by the The Crisis and Support Centre of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs on Thursday, March 20, 2025 shows France's Olivier Grondeau sitting in a plane after being freed by Iran. (MEAE/CDCS via AP)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A French citizen imprisoned in Iran for over 880 days has been freed and is back home, as was another French citizen held under house arrest in Tehran, French officials said Thursday. Their liberation came as France and the rest of Europe are trying to jumpstart talks with Iran over its rapidly advancing nuclear program.
to Iran's 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei seeking negotiations. Trump is also pressuring Tehran over its support of Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels as the targeting the group.
French President announced online that Frenchman Olivier Grondeau had been freed. The French Foreign Ministry said another French citizen who had been under house arrest in Tehran for more than four months was released Wednesday night. He asked to not be publicly identified, the ministry said.
The release came ahead of Nowruz, the Persian New Year, when Iran has released prisoners in the past.
In January, Grondeau spoke to a French broadcaster from prison, alluding at the time to the politics at play in his imprisonment. “You become a human who has been stocked away indefinitely because one government is seeking to exert pressure on another,†he said.
His lawyer in France, Chirinne Ardakani, said he returned on Monday to Paris. “He’s in good hands. He’s recovering,†the attorney told The Associated Press.
An Iranian court had sentenced Grondeau, a backpacker and world traveler, to five years in prison on espionage charges that he, his family and the French government vigorously denied.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said France did not provide anything in exchange for Grondeau’s liberation. Barrot told French broadcaster TF1 on Thursday that he had initially discussed the situation with Iran’s foreign minister but when those discussions failed to secure a release, ″it was via different means that we obtained this result.″ He didn’t elaborate.
Iran isn't acknowledging the release
Releases of Westerners in Iran typically come in exchange for something. Tehran did not immediately acknowledge Grondeau’s release.
Earlier this week, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said France had arrested an Iranian woman who supported Palestinians, but said Tehran was still trying to gather more details about her case.
An image that circulated of Grondeau on a private jet flying home was a plastic-wrapped T-shirt with a photo of pop star Britney Spears. He put it on before getting off the plane and embracing his family on returning home, in footage aired by TF1.
Grondeau was detained by Iranian authorities in October 2022 in the city of Shiraz.
Though the exact details of what sparked Iran's arrest of Grondeau remain unclear, his detention began in the chaotic aftermath of , a 22-year-old woman who died after being detained over not wearing Iran's mandatory headscarf, or hijab, to the liking of authorities.
United Nations investigators later said , which sparked months of protests and a bloody security force crackdown in the country.
“Most of the questions were, ‘Did you take part in a demonstration,’ ‘List all of the Iranians that you met during your trip,’ ‘Why did you come to Iran?’ ‘You’re not a tourist,'" Grondeau said in the January phone call with French broadcaster France 2.
“One day you think you’re going to be freed very quickly, the next you think you’ll die here,†he added.
He described lights being shined on prisoners day and night, as well as being blindfolded each time he was being taken out of his cell while in solitary confinement for 72 days. He later shared a cell with over a dozen prisoners.
Asked if he had suffered ill treatment, he said: “If you look for bruises on my body you won’t find any, because they are not that stupid.â€
Grondeau was held at Tehran's notorious Evin Prison, which holds Westerners, dual nationals and political prisoners often used by Tehran as bargaining chips in negotiations with the West.
Macron also posted about the two, writing: “All my thoughts are with them and their families on this day.â€
Grondeau's lawyer said the news about his release was tempered by the continued detention of the two others. “We’re only half-relieved,†she said.
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Leicester reported from Le Pecq, France. Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran; and Lorian Belanger in Bangkok contributed to this report.
