Anglo-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, detained since April 2016 in Iran

The French newspaper Le Figaro reports that two more dual and foreign nationals have been detained in Iran.

The account says a French-Iranian dual citizen and a German national were seized more than two weeks ago. It claims the detainees, who were not identified, are being held as leverage for Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi, sentenced by a Belgian court on February 4.

Assadi, said to lead a Europe-wide spying network, was given a 20-year prison term for plotting to bomb a Paris rally of the National Committee for Resistance in Iran in June 2018.

See also Belgium Gives Iranian Diplomat 20-Year Sentence Over Bomb Plot

Le Figaro said the French-Iranian national was arrested while flying a small drone in the desert.

The Revolutionary Guards have seized a series of foreign and dual-national academics in recent years. Some have been released in prisoner swaps. Others are still behind bars or on furlough, confined to houses and on electronic tag, amid the Coronavirus pandemic.

Last week Professor Reza Eslami of Tehran’s Shahid Beheshti University, an Iranian-Canadian national, was given a 7-year prison sentence. His “crime” was attendance at a training course in the Czech Republic.

Iranian-Canadian Professor Given 7 Years in Prison for Attending Czech Law Course