DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A French citizen imprisoned in Iran for over 880 days has been freed, French officers mentioned Thursday.The discharge of Olivier Grondeau comes as France and the remainder of Europe attempt to pursue negotiations with Iran over its abruptly advancing nuclear program.U.S. President Donald Trump in the meantime has despatched his personal letter to Iran’s 85-year-old Ideally suited Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to jumpstart talks. Trump could also be pressuring Tehran over its enhance of Yemen’s Houthi rebels because the American army has introduced an intense new marketing campaign of airstrikes concentrated on the crowd.In going public together with his detention in January, Grondeau alluded to the politics at play in his imprisonment.“You turn into a human who has been stocked away indefinitely as a result of one govt is looking for to exert force on any other,” he mentioned.French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on-line that Grondeau have been freed. He introduced no fast main points of what ended in Grondeau’s free up, although it got here on Nowruz, the Persian New Yr, when Iran has launched prisoners previously.Jean-Noël Barrot, France’s minister for Europe and overseas affairs, posted an image on-line of Grondeau smiling aboard what seemed to be a personal jet.“We will be able to tirelessly proceed our efforts to make certain that all our compatriots nonetheless held hostage, together with Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, are in flip launched,” Barrot wrote.Macron additionally raised their circumstances.“Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris should be free of Iranian jails,” he wrote. “All my ideas are with them and their households on at the moment.”Iran does now not recognize releaseThe Iranian govt didn’t right away recognize Grondeau’s free up. Such releases of Westerners in Iran normally are available trade for one thing. Previous this week, Overseas Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei mentioned France had arrested an Iranian girl who supported Palestinians, however mentioned Tehran was once nonetheless seeking to collect extra information about her case.On Grondeau’s lap within the symbol from the personal jet was once a plastic-wrapped T-shirt bearing an image of the pop superstar Britney Spears, one thing officers didn’t recognize in welcoming Grondeau’s free up. He put it on earlier than getting off the airplane and embracing his circle of relatives on returning house, in pictures aired through French broadcaster TF1.France’s overseas minister was once there, too. “Bravo in your braveness,” he advised Grondeau.His mom had described the previous early life Scrabble champion as keen on Beyoncé and karaoke in interviews with French media after he and his circle of relatives went public together with his detention in January.Grondeau was once detained through Iranian government in October 2022 within the town of Shiraz.Arrest got here right through Mahsa Amini protestsThough the precise main points of what sparked Iran’s arrest of Grondeau stay unclear, his detention started within the chaotic aftermath of the loss of life of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old girl who died after being detained over now not dressed in Iran’s obligatory scarf, or hijab, to the liking of government. United International locations investigators later mentioned Iran was once chargeable for the “bodily violence” that ended in her loss of life, which sparked months of protests and a bloody safety drive crackdown within the nation.“Lots of the questions had been, ‘Did you’re taking phase in an indication,’ ‘Checklist the entire Iranians that you simply met right through your commute,’ ‘Why did you return to Iran?’ ‘You’re now not a vacationer,'” Grondeau mentioned in a telephone name aired with French broadcaster France 2 in January after going public together with his case.“Sooner or later you suppose you’re going to be freed in no time, the following you suppose you’ll die right here,” he added.He described lighting fixtures being shined on prisoners day and evening, in addition to being blindfolded every time he was once being taken out of his cellular whilst in solitary confinement for 72 days. He later shared a cellular with over a dozen prisoners.Requested if he had suffered sick remedy, he mentioned: “If you happen to search for bruises on my frame you received’t to find any, as a result of they aren’t that silly.”An Iranian court docket later sentenced the backpacker and international traveler to 5 years in jail on espionage fees that he, his circle of relatives and the French govt vigorously denied.He have been held at Tehran’s infamous Evin jail, which holds Westerners, twin nationals and political prisoners incessantly utilized by Tehran as bargaining chips in negotiations with the West.___Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, Lorian Belanger in Bangkok and John Leicester in Le Pecq, France, contributed to this file.
