by Mick the Ram

In a surprise announcement by France’s President Emmanuel Macron, French citizen Olivier Grondeau, who had been held in an Iranian prison for almost 900 days, has been freed by his captors.

The 34-year-old was detained in southern Iran in October 2022 whilst travelling on a tourist visa, as part of a world tour he had embarked upon.

It was widely believed that Tehran was using him as a bargaining chip and the charge of “conspiring against the Islamic Republic” was typical of the tactics used by the Iranians, whereby they hold innocent individuals in an attempt to exact concessions from other countries.

Mr Grondeau had been sentenced to five years in jail, and despite protests and a hunger strike, the former junior Scrabble champion seemed destined to remain in the notorious Evin jail – which holds Westerners, dual nationals and political prisoners in the country’s capital city – for the entirety of his conviction.

Why he has been released at this point is unknown, but it is believed US President Donald Trump has sent a letter to Iran’s 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warning that the powerful wave of air strikes he launched on Houthi rebels in Yemen recently, would intensify unless they stopped attacking ships in the Red Sea, and requesting that Iran stopped funding the terror group.

It could be a demonstration of good will, although Mr Grondeau is a passionate fan of Persian poetry and his release came on Nowruz, the Persian New Year, a day when Iran has released prisoners in the past.

Mr Macron is now pressing the middle east nation to set free two other French prisoners – Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris – who have been held since May 2022, accused of seeking to stir up protests.

Security crackdown

Although precisely what led to his arrest in the first place is unclear, it is thought to be linked to the aftermath of the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died after being detained over not wearing Iran’s mandatory headscarf, or hijab.

United Nations investigators later said Iran was responsible for the “physical violence” that was the cause of he death, after which protests were common place, and in the chaotic scenes, there was a security force crackdown right across the country, and Mr Grondeau appears to have innocently got himself caught up in it all.

Controversial charge

He was arbitrarily arrested by Iranian authorities in October 2022, during a visit to the city of Shiraz and an Iranian court later issued the backpacker his lengthy sentence for “gathering information with a view to handing it over to the opposing espionage service.”

Mr Grondeau, his family and the French government vigorously deny any wrong doing, but their denials continuously fell on deaf ears.

Political motivation

He initially chose to avoid media coverage, believing it would hinder rather than help his situation, but his conditions of detention were desperate, only being allowed one weekly call to his parents at allocated time slots.

When it became clear that press coverage couldn’t actually make things any worse, the family decided to go public with his story, at which time French media published an audio message from him.

In it he said: “One day you think you’re going to be freed very quickly, the next you think you’ll die here; you become a human who has been stocked away indefinitely because one government is seeking to exert pressure on another.”

Huge relief

Announcing his release, Mr Macron said his fellow Frenchman was back in France with his relatives. “We share his family’s immense happiness and relief,” he wrote on X.

Jean-Noël Barrot, France’s foreign affairs minister, posted a picture of Mr Grondeau smiling on board what appeared to be a private jet and he accompanied the post with a caption: “Olivier Grondeau is finally free; taken hostage in Iran for 887 days, he has been reunited with his family, loved ones and his country – it is a tremendous relief.”

Attention switches to others held

The two men also vowed to “tirelessly” continue with efforts to ensure every French citizen still held hostage in Iran were released.

That includes teacher Cécile Kohler and her partner Jacques Paris, who were detained in May 2022 and accused of seeking to stir up protests, which their families have fiercely denied.

US attacks could have helped

Human rights groups continue to stress that tourists and dual nationals are often held for leverage in diplomatic negotiations, and usually only released when Iran gets something back in return, however, whether that is the case in this instance remains unknown.

Nevertheless, the Iranians will have undoubtedly been agitated by the recent US strikes against the Houthis in Yemen, which represented the heaviest since joint US/UK air operations began in January 2024.

They were also the first under the new administration of President Donald Trump, who sent a clear message to Tehran, insisting that “every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of Iran.”

The US leader has demanded that the Iranians stop sending supplies and threatened retaliatory intervention if they fail to rein in the terror group.

Espionage a convenient charge

Other foreigners held in Iranian prisons include Craig and Lindsay Foreman, a British couple who were detained in January while on an around-the-world motorbike trip.

They too have been charged with espionage, with Iranian state media reporting they were being held in the south-eastern city of Kerman. 

In January of this year 29-year-old Italian journalist Cecilia Sala was finally able to return to Rome after spending weeks in an Iranian jail, where she explained she had been held in solitary confinement in shocking conditions.