A French-German cyclist aged 19 who was arrested on spying charges while cycling alone across Iran during a long-distance trip between Europe and Asia has now been released.
Lennart Monterlos was detained while cycling across Europe and Asia, his journey through Iran coinciding with the country’s 12-day conflict with Israel this summer.
The 19-year-old was released on Sunday and is to be repatriated to France, as an Iranian court confirmed his acquittal, the arrest having happened on 16 June in Bandar Abbas in the south of Iran. While there was a level of uncertainty around the exact charges Mr Monterlos faced, it is understood he faced accusations of espionage, prompting his family to demand his release and argue he was “innocent of everything”.
France 24 reported how the judiciary’s website had communicated the news of Mr Monterlos’s release on Monday after “taking into account legal principles and doubts about the crime”.
The case has attracted media attention in France and notably ran parallel to two other French citizens, Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, who have also been detained in Iran accused of spying for Israel and face the death penalty.
In the weeks after Mr Monterlos’s arrest, Iran’s foreign minister had accused him of “committing an offence”, speaking to the French press about the case. However, four months on, Iran’s courts have decided the teenager should be released immediately and has no case to answer.
The release comes as French ultra-endurance cyclist Sofiane Sehili remains in pre-trial detention in Russia.
Last week, authorities confirmed Sehili would be detained for at least another month and was accused of an illegal border crossing from China in Russia’s Pacific east.
Sehili — a former winner of the Silk Road Mountain Race, Tour Divide and Atlas Mountain Race — was on track to break the world record for cycling across Europe and Asia, just 400km from the finish of his 18,000km epic.
Sehili’s partner explained how he was halted by border officials at one China-Russia border crossing and then rode 200km to another checkpoint but was denied access there too.
“I’m the main attraction, the only foreigner,” Sehili told his Instagram followers. “The police inspect my bike, look at me, and don’t say anything. I don’t know if I’ll be able to cross the border. Failing so close to the goal is heartbreaking. Now I have ten months to decide if I want to go for this record again… or if it will remain a failure forever.”
With 33 hours left to get to Vladivostok to break the record, L’Equipe reported Sehili was informed that only crossing by a 20km train journey would be authorised, something which would obviously rule his two-month-long attempt void.
“There, it’s really a no man’s land that you can only cross by train,” his partner Fanny Bensussan told the newspaper.
He then apparently crossed the border through some nearby woods and presented himself at the rail customs on the Russian side, where he was arrested.
