Paris — Iran’s foreign minister has confirmed that his country is detaining a teenage French-German cyclist who disappeared last month, French newspaper Le Monde reported Friday. The cyclist, Lennart Monterlos, “was detained for having committed an infraction,” the newspaper quoted Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi as saying in the interview Thursday.
He didn’t elaborate on the nature of the alleged offense.
Araghchi said France’s Embassy in Tehran had been notified, the newspaper added. It said that Monterlos was cycling across Iran and hasn’t been heard from since mid-June.
France’s Foreign Ministry didn’t confirm the detention but said that it was in contact with Iranian authorities about “the situation of our national” and also with the family.
Citing concerns for his security, it said it had no other comment. It reiterated previous warnings that French nationals shouldn’t travel to Iran. The cyclist is the third French national known to be detained in Iran, which is accused by France of practicing hostage diplomacy.
Two others, Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, have been held in Iran for more than three years in prison conditions that France likens to torture and on charges that Paris says are without foundation.
“Iran practices a deliberate policy of state hostages,” the French Foreign Ministry said this week. “All French nationals who find themselves there expose themselves to a risk of arrest and arbitrary detention, including tourists, for the sole reason of having French nationality.”
German Foreign Ministry spokesperson Kathrin Deschauer told reporters in Berlin that the ministry is aware of the case of the detained cyclist, but has no comment beyond that. Germany also warns its citizens against travel to Iran.
The United States’ government also strongly urges Americans not to travel to Iran, citing the risk of arbitrary detention. Monterlos was last heard from at around the same time that Israel launched a series of attacks against Iran’s nuclear and military facilities. President Trump ordered the U.S. military to join those strikes on June 21, with massive “bunker-buster” bombs used to inflict serious damage on three of Iran’s nuclear sites.
Israel and Iran were at war for 12 days, and an American cyclist told CBS News about his tense escape from the Islamic Republic as Israeli bombs fell.
On June 15, Ian Andersen, who had been cycling through the country for a couple weeks at that stage and had been welcomed by Iranians, heard the explosions from Israeli strikes in the distance. He said he received an email from the U.S. State Department that day, advising him of options for Americans wishing to leave the country.
Andersen opted to embark on an eight-hour drive north to reach the border with Azerbaijan. After getting caught in a dense traffic jam as residents of the capital city Tehran fled and then navigating many military checkpoints, Andersen reached the border, but was then subjected two separate exit interviews — including one by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
“That’s where I was like, ‘OK, I’ve got a 50-50 chance of being taken either as a bargaining chip or for further questioning,'” he said of the experience.
In the end, Andersen was allowed to leave after just a few questions, but he described the experience as “quite harrowing.”
