PARIS, France: Iran is holding in prison two prominent Iranian graphic design artists after they met two French diplomats in a case that has sparked tensions between Paris and Tehran, their supporters said.
Aria Kasaei, 46, and Elly Naghilou, 36, were arrested after meeting the French diplomats in July to discuss a cultural project and have been held ever since.
The two diplomats were briefly detained last month over accusations of “interference,” in what French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot termed a “flagrant violation of diplomatic immunity.”
The diplomats were subsequently allowed to return home. France has not mentioned that the two Iranians were arrested in the same case.
The supporters said the meeting with the French cultural attache and another diplomat had taken place on July 19 at Kasaei’s home in Tehran and that the arrests occurred during that meeting.
“Aria and Elly have remained in detention ever since and, to date, have had no access to an independent lawyer,” the supporters said in a statement shared with AFP in Paris on Monday.
“We call for any specific charges brought against Aria Kasaei and Elly Naghilou to be made public, for them to be granted immediate access to an independent lawyer and an effective defense, and for their safety and fundamental rights to be guaranteed,” the statement added.
On Monday, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said France should apologize for the actions of the diplomats, insisting they had violated the Vienna Convention and adding they would not be allowed to return.
The designers’ supporters said that as “two French representatives directly witnessed part of these events” Paris should “fully establish the circumstances of these arrests” and “take every necessary step to guarantee their rights, safety and release.”
The French foreign ministry did not make any immediate comment.
In apparent reference to the case, Iran’s intelligence ministry has said an initial probe showed the two diplomats were “planning and designing a vast scheme aimed at exerting influence and engaging in foreign interference.”
But the designers’ supporters said the intelligence ministry provided a “profoundly misleading picture of the nature of that meeting” and the two Iranians “were involved in this project solely in their capacity as graphic designers.”
Rights groups say Iranian authorities have ratcheted up a crackdown against civil society in the wake of January protests that rocked the clerical leadership and the subsequent US-Israeli war against the Islamic republic.
