Iran has released a French businesswoman detained for nearly four months, IRNA news agency reported.
The Sunday report quotes the spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry, Bahram Ghasemi, as saying Iran has released Nelly Erin-Cambervelle, a 59-year-old businesswoman from Martinique, who was in jail for entering the country illegally, Fox News notes. Ghasemi said the French national was released “in recent days,” according to the report, which did not elaborate.
Last week, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said France was in touch with Iran to improve conditions for Erin-Cambervelle, who was arrested in October on the Iranian Persian Gulf island of Kish.
Erin-Cambervelle had been on Kish – a free-trade zone allowing visa-free entry for visitors from most countries – as part of her import-export business, Reuters writes.
Details over her arrest first appeared in Martinique media last week after Patricia Gros-Desirs Dicanot, a friend and colleague, was quoted as saying that Erin-Cambervelle had been arrested for illegally buying gold after originally going to Kish to begin negotiating a minerals contract.
Dicanot said Iranian authorities were demanding 40,000 euros ($45,000) for her release.
“The consular services have been able to meet her several times and are very concerned about her situation,” Le Drian said on Wednesday. “We are in touch with the family and with the Iranian authorities to ensure that Mrs Erin’s situation improves, while respecting Iranian procedures.”
Relations between France and Iran have been strained over the last six months despite the two sides committing to upholding a 2015 nuclear deal, after the United States withdrew from the accord.
Paris suspended nominating a new ambassador to Iran last year after an alleged bomb plot by Iranian intelligence and had not responded to Tehran’s nominations for the top diplomatic post in France. Iran has denied involvement in any plot.
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