Olivier Grondeau

Olivier Grondeau

French poet, writer, and bookseller

Biography

Olivier Grondeau is a French poet, writer, and bookseller. 

Arrest

Grondeau was arrested on October 12, 2022, in Shiraz, Iran, while visiting the country during a world tour. The arrest occurred in the midst of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests gripping the country. 

At Grondeau’s request, his relatives did not publicly disclose his case, seeking not to get in the way of diplomacy to gain his release. With negotiations proving fruitless, Grondeau chose in January 2025 to speak with a French broadcaster from prison. 

Treatment in Captivity and Interview from Prison

In a letter to his family published in Le Monde, Grondeau stated that he was “abducted” by four men in his hotel and placed in a room without windows. He was kept blindfolded and handcuffed during his first day in detention. He was transferred to Tehran’s notoriously brutal Evin Prison. 

The Iranian authorities only provided signs of life to Grondeau’s family on November 16, 2022, over a month following his arrest.  The authorities permitted Grondeau to call his relatives 72 days following his arrest, after he had been transferred from Evin Prison back to Shiraz. However, he has since been returned to Evin. Guards observe his phone calls to relatives.

Grondeau was held in a cell he shared with 18 other prisoners, and in a wing in Evin set aside for dual nationals and foreigners. According to a report by Iran International, he “has limited access to a library and books sent by the French embassy.”

In his French radio interview while imprisoned, Grondeau said that during his interrogations, “Most of the questions were, ‘Did you take part in a demonstration,’ ‘List all of the Iranians that you met during your trip,’ ‘Why did you come to Iran?’ ‘You’re not a tourist.”

“One day you think you’re going to be freed very quickly, the next you think you’ll die here,” he stated.

Grondeau added that the lights in prisoners’ cells were on 24 hours a day, and that he had been held in solitary confinement for 72 days, and that while in solitary, he was blindfolded each time he was moved from his cell. Asked whether he had been mistreated, he replied, “If you look for bruises on my body you won’t find any, because they are not that stupid.”

Grondeau made a plea to the French government. "You, who have the power to influence this matter, hear this truth,” he said. "[French hostage Cecile Kohler’s] strength, [French hostage Jacques Paris’s] strength, Olivier's strength, it is all running out. Your responsibility is called upon to ensure the survival of three human beings.” He also accused Iran of holding him in order to engage in “political blackmail” of France.

Grondeau acknowledged that he risked retaliation from his captors by recording the audio. “I know that to speak out is to take a risk,” he said. “But where there is risk, there is hope and I have very little left. I am really very tired.”

 Sentencing

A court convicted and sentenced Grondeau to five years’ imprisonment in February 2024 for “espionage and conspiracy against the Islamic Republic.” Grondeau said in an audio message recorded from prison that “The court that sentenced me had no evidence against me. I am innocent.”

Release

Grondeau was released on March 20, 2025, together with another, unnamed French citizen who had been under house arrest in Tehran. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said that France did not trade anything in exchange for the two French nationals’ freedom. Barrot said that initially he had discussed their case with his Iranian counterpart, but when those conversations proved fruitless, ″it was via different means that we obtained this result.″ Barrot did not provide specifics.

International Reaction

France’s Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs summoned Iran’s ambassador to that country in January 2025 to protest the detention of Grondeau and the other two French nationals held hostage in Iran. “Their situation is intolerable, with inhumane detention conditions that, in some cases, constitute torture under international law,” the ministry declared in a statement.

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