French researcher chronicles misery in Iranian jail

PARIS: Roland Marchal, the French researcher freed last month after more than nine months imprisoned in Iran, detailed on Monday the conditions of his confinement, with only the occasional book, odd visit or exchanges with other inmates to keep him sane.

In his first public statements since returning to France as part of a prisoner exchange, Marchal said the isolation was worse than the interrogations. "I was not physically tortured, but I suffered greatly from my confinement, and above all, my isolation," he said in a written message transmitted by his support group of friends and colleagues.

"Much more than the interrogations, it is confinement -- very different to the type imposed on us because of the coronavirus -- which proved very painful," he said. "Only the books... to which I had partial access, and friendships struck with a few inmates allowed me to hold on in a universe where each day resembles the previous and the next," Marchal said. Imprisoned in Iran since June 2019, Marchal was freed by Iran on March 20 after France released an Iranian, Jalal Rohollahnejad, who was facing extradition to the United States on accusations he tried to smuggle technology materials into Iran in violation of American sanctions.