Family of French-German cyclist detained in Iran says he is 'innocent'

The family of a 19-year-old Franco-German cyclist arrested in Iran while on a Europe-to-Asia bike trip said on Thursday he was "innocent" and demanded proof he was alive from Iranian authorities.

Family and friends of Lennart Monterlos said in a statement sent to AFP that they had not received any explanation for his arrest since he disappeared in Iran on 16 June, several days into unprecedented Israeli airstrikes on Iran.

A month later, "we have no official information about either the place of his detention or the reasons for his arrest in Bandar-Abbas, Iran, during the war", they said.

"We count on the efforts of French diplomats, who we know to be mobilised, for the swift release of our very young son, who is innocent of everything," they added.

"We ask the Iranian authorities who are holding him for a sign of life and to be able to get in touch with him as soon as possible."

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told French newspaper Le Monde last week that Tehran had detained the young man.

The French Foreign Ministry has told AFP that it is in contact with Iranian authorities about the case.

Two other French nationals, academics Cecile Kohler, 40, and Jacques Paris, 72, are also being held on charges of spying for Israel and could face the death penalty.

They were detained on 7 May 2022. Iran is believed to hold about 20 Europeans in detention.

Along with other European countries, France suspects Iran of taking Western citizens hostage to trade their freedom for concessions, notably on its nuclear plans and the lifting of economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

France and a number of other countries have urged their nationals not to go to Iran because of the risk of detention.

A ceasefire ended the 12-day war between Iran and Israel on 24 June.

The United States and other Western countries, along with Israel, accuse Iran of seeking to build a nuclear weapon.

Tehran denies this but has gradually broken away from its commitments under a 2015 nuclear deal it struck with world powers, after the United States withdrew from it in 2018.

The landmark 2015 Iran nuclear deal provided Tehran with sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its atomic programme to be monitored by the UN nuclear watchdog.

The deal included the possibility of UN sanctions being reimposed through a mechanism called "snapback" if Iran failed to fulfil its commitments.

Britain, France and Germany, the three European parties to the 2015 nuclear deal, have said time is running out.

But "without verifiable commitment from Iran by the latest at the end of August, France, Germany and the United Kingdom will have to reimpose UN sanctions," the French foreign ministry said on Tuesday.