France expresses concerns over disappearance of teenager during cycling trip in Iran

A French teenager who was on a cycling trip in Iran has been missing since June 16, a diplomatic source told AFP on Sunday.

Posts shared on Instagram identified the missing person as 18-year-old Lennart Monterlos, who allegedly also holds German nationality.

“This disappearance is worrying. We are in contact with the family about this,” the French diplomatic source said when asked about the missing person notices on social media.

French nationals are advised not to travel to Iran as the government is implementing “a deliberate policy of taking Western hostages”, the source added.

The source was unable to confirm if the young Frenchman was among the Europeans recently arrested in Iran on charges of spying for Israel.

Iran is believed to hold around 20 European nationals, many of whose cases have never been publicised.

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Three other Europeans, who have not been identified, have also been arrested in the wake of the recent conflict, two of whom have been accused of spying for Israel.

Two French nationals Cecile Kohler, 40, and Jacques Paris, her 72-year-old partner, have been held in Iran since May 2022 on charges of espionage that their families deny.

France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot spoke to his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi on Sunday to demand the release of Kohler and Paris, according to the ministry, which did not say if the French minister raised the case of Monterlos.

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Iran earlier this week charged Kohler and Paris with spying for Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad, as well as “corruption of Earth” and “plotting to overthrow the regime”, diplomatic and family sources told AFP on Wednesday.

Tehran has not confirmed the new charges, all three of which carry the death penalty. France says their “arbitrary” arrest and the conditions of their detention are “tantamount to torture”.

Monterlos had given details of his trip on a post on a crowdfunding platform, writing that he was in his final year of high school in eastern France and wanted to cycle across Europe and Asia.