DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)
A noted French academic working with a French-Iranian researcher arrested in Iran says he last heard from Fariba Adelkhah on June 12 — when she may already have lost her freedom.
Jean-Francois Bayart told Europe 1 radio on Tuesday that she responded to his email "in a strange way." He said he later understood "she wasn't the writer of this mail or she wrote it under constraint."
An Iranian judiciary spokesman confirmed on Tuesday that Adelkhah, 60, was arrested a day after France's Foreign Ministry announced it.
France wants consular access to her "without delay" and President Emmanuel Macron said Monday he would press Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani for information.
The arrest comes as Macron tries to calm rising tensions over an unraveling 2015 nuclear deal.
