DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — French authorities announced the release of a French national who had been imprisoned in Iran for over 880 days on Thursday.
Olivier Grondeau’s release coincides with ongoing negotiations between France, Europe, and Iran regarding Iran’s rapidly developing nuclear capabilities.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump has sent a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 85, aiming to initiate discussions. Trump is also increasing pressure on Tehran due to its backing of Yemen’s Houthi rebels, prompting a new wave of intense U.S. airstrikes against the group.
Grondeau, in revealing his detention to the public in January, suggested the role of political maneuvering in his imprisonment.
“You become a person who is indefinitely held because one government seeks to pressure another,” he stated.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced Grondeau’s freedom online but did not provide details regarding the circumstances. The release occurred on Nowruz, the Persian New Year, a time when Iran has historically released prisoners.
Jean-Noël Barrot, the French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, shared a photo online of Grondeau smiling on board a private jet.
“We will continue our tireless efforts to ensure the release of all our compatriots still held hostage, including Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris,” Barrot stated.
Macron also addressed their situations.
“Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris must be freed from Iranian jails,” he wrote. “My thoughts are with them and their families today.”
Iran does not acknowledge release
The Iranian government has not yet acknowledged Grondeau’s release. Such releases of Western citizens in Iran usually involve an exchange. Earlier in the week, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei stated that France had arrested an Iranian woman who supported Palestinians, but that Tehran was still trying to obtain more information about her case.
In the image taken on the private jet, Grondeau was holding a plastic-wrapped T-shirt featuring pop star Britney Spears, which officials made no mention of when celebrating his release. He wore the shirt before leaving the plane and greeting his family upon arrival home.
His mother described him as a fan of Beyoncé and karaoke in interviews with French media after he and his family made his detention public in January. He was a former youth Scrabble champion.
Grondeau was apprehended by Iranian authorities in October 2022 in Shiraz.
Arrest came during Mahsa Amini protests
While the precise reasons for Grondeau’s arrest by Iran are still unknown, his detention began during the turbulent period following the death of Mahsa Amini. Amini, 22, died after being arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s mandatory headscarf, or hijab, regulations. United Nations investigators later concluded that Iran was responsible for the “physical violence” that caused her death, which sparked months of protests and a brutal crackdown by security forces.
“Most of the questions were, ‘Did you participate in a demonstration,’ ‘List all the Iranians you met during your trip,’ ‘Why did you come to Iran?’ ‘You’re not a tourist,'” Grondeau said in a phone call with French broadcaster France 2 in January after making his case public.
“One day you think you’re going to be freed very quickly, the next you think you’ll die here,” he added.
He described constant exposure to lights, as well as being blindfolded each time he was escorted from his cell while in solitary confinement for 72 days. He later shared a cell with more than a dozen prisoners.
When asked about mistreatment, he responded, “If you look for bruises on my body you won’t find any, because they are not that stupid.”
An Iranian court later sentenced the backpacker and world traveler to five years in prison on espionage charges, which he, his family, and the French government strongly denied.
He was held in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, which houses Westerners, dual nationals, and political prisoners often used by Tehran as leverage 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 report.