Fariba Adelkhah was arrested in Tehran in June, 2019 PARIS: France on Tuesday accused Iran of holding French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah “only for political aims,” after the judiciary upheld a five-year jail sentence against her. Adelkhah, a prominent anthropologist specializing in Shia Islam, was arrested in Tehran on June 5, 2019, and has been held behind bars ever since. “We condemn this decision by the Iranian authorities who persist in holding Mrs.Fariba Adelkhah only for political aims, in the absence of any serious evidence or fact,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. “We remain determined to secure the release of our compatriot,” it added. In May Adelkhah had been ordered to serve five years in prison after being convicted on national security charges. Iran’s judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili confirmed Tuesday that the sentence had been upheld. She will “serve five years” including time served since her arrest, Esmaili told journalists. The French foreign ministry said this could only have a negative impact on relations “and substantially reduces the confidence between our two countries.” A France-based support committee for Adelkhah denounced the ruling as a “parody of justice.” It called for her release, especially given the spread of COVID-19 in Iran, with Adelkhah still weak after a 49-day hunger strike she waged from December to February. Relations between Tehran and Paris have deteriorated in the past year. Both were parties to the landmark 2015 nuclear deal. But last week, France was among the countries that passed a resolution at the UN’s nuclear watchdog calling on Iran to clarify whether it had undertaken undeclared nuclear activities in the early 2000s — a move condemned by the Islamic republic. Also Tuesday, the Iranian judiciary said that Iranian opposition activist Ruhollah Zam had been sentenced to death following his arrest last year. Zam, a refugee for several years in France, disappeared on a trip to Baghdad in October. Paris-based Press rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has accused Iran of abducting him in Iraq to face trial back home.