Iran releases dual German national as it attends talks with European powers

Iran has released a dual national with German citizenship, while Iranian diplomats are engaging in further consultations with their European counterparts regarding sanctions and how to address escalating tensions. Iranian-German human rights activist Nahid Taghavi has been released from an Iranian prison and returned to Germany, according to a photo of her with her mother posted on social media platform X by her daughter, Mariam Claren.

The Iranian judiciary and foreign ministry have not immediately commented on her release. The 70-year-old was arrested in Tehran, Iran's capital, in October 2020 and sentenced to 10 years in prison for being convicted of "acting against national security" and "spreading propaganda against the regime." Amnesty International called Taghavi a "prisoner of conscience" and deemed her detention "arbitrary," noting that she was held in prolonged solitary confinement despite her poor health and several brief medical furloughs.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock responded to the news on Monday, stating, "It is a moment of relief that Nahid Taghavi can finally embrace her family again." Her release comes amid a week of several developments between Iran and Western nations on the issue of prisoners. Both Switzerland and France summoned Iranian envoys to protest the detention of their nationals, a day after Iran reported that a Swiss national had "committed suicide" in Semnan prison, located about 180km east of Tehran.

Italian journalist Cecilia Sala was released by Iran last week after being detained for three weeks in Tehran's Evin prison. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni personally traveled to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida to discuss a solution. The 29-year-old writer and podcaster was arrested for "violating the laws of the Islamic Republic" after entering Iran with a standard journalist visa. Her arrest occurred three days after Italy detained Iranian national Mohammad Abedini at the request of the U.S., which accused him and another Iranian national of transferring drone technology to Iran.

Washington claims the technology was linked to a drone attack on a U.S. military base in Jordan last year that resulted in the deaths of three American soldiers. Officials confirmed that Abedini arrived in Tehran on Sunday, while insisting that his case was not directly related to the Italian journalist's arrest or release. In mid-December, Iran sentenced Iranian-American journalist Reza Valizadeh to 10 years in prison for "cooperating with the hostile U.S. government."

Meanwhile, Iran began more diplomatic talks with Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, the three main European powers, on Monday afternoon in Geneva, Switzerland. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ismail Baghaei told reporters earlier that day that Tehran’s main focus was on lifting sanctions. He stated that the meetings could not be described as "negotiations" but rather a continuation of "consultations" held in December. Baghaei added that a "wide range" of topics, including nuclear issues, would be discussed in Geneva.

The first Trump administration imposed comprehensive U.S. sanctions on the Iranian economy after unilaterally withdrawing from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the Iran nuclear deal reached with world powers in 2018. The European Union has also imposed a series of sanctions on Iran during the war in Ukraine, with Western nations accusing Iran of supplying weapons to Russia. Tehran denies being a weapons supplier for the war, claiming it only sent a small number of drones to Russia months before Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Bilateral relations between Iran and Germany have also deteriorated, with Taghavi's release coming months after the death of another jailed German-Iranian dual national, an event that sparked a diplomatic row between Berlin and Tehran. In late October, Baerbock ordered the closure of all three Iranian consulates in Germany after Iranian state media reported the death of German-Iranian prisoner Jamshid Sharmahd (sentenced to death in 2023 on "terrorism"-related charges) prior to his execution.