French citizen Olivier Grondeau was released from over 880 days of detention in Iran, French President Macron announced on Thursday in a post on X/Twitter.
Grondeau has spent a total of 887 days in detention, said the country's Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noel Barrot in another post, adding that the release "is a credit to French diplomacy and the hard work of our embassy in Tehran, the crisis and support center, and the services of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whom I congratulate for their perseverance."
Iranian authorities detained Grondeau in October 2022 in the city of Shiraz.
According to a phone call between Grondeau and French broadcaster France 2 in January, the reasons for his arrest were unclear. However, it did occur in the aftermath of mass protests following the death of Mahsa Amini.
Grondeau told France 2 that Iranian officials asked him if he was involved in demonstrations and questioned why he came to Iran.
An Iranian court later sentenced him to five years in prison on espionage charges that he denied.
“One day you think you’re going to be freed very quickly, the next you think you’ll die here,” he said.
Experiences in prison
He also described his time in detention in Iran's infamous Evin prison saying that lights were on all day and night, and that he was blindfolded every time he left the cell. He also reported spending 72 days in solitary confinement.
Grondeau also alluded to suffering physical abuse, “If you look for bruises on my body you won’t find any, because they are not that stupid.”
He told France 2 that he felt like a political pawn during his imprisonment. “You become a human who has been stocked away indefinitely because one government is seeking to exert pressure on another,” he said.
Two other French citizens remain in Iranian detention—Jacques Paris and Cecile Kohler, both of whom have been held since 7 May 2022.
The couple are also being held on espionage charges.
Barrot mentioned them in his tweet, saying, "We will tirelessly continue our efforts to ensure that all our compatriots still held hostage, including Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, are released."