Tasnim � Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Mousavi deplored a recent statement by the French Foreign Ministry about an imprisoned Iranian national as an act of interference and said it lacks any legal value.

�The French Foreign Ministry�s statement on an Iranian citizen is an act of interference and we consider the French request (for her release) to have no legal basis because the person (Fariba Adelkhah) is an Iranian citizen detained on charges of espionage and his lawyer is informed of details of the case,� Mousavi said on Sunday.

Her case is under investigation by the (Iranian) Judiciary, the spokesman added.

Mousavi also pointed to the detention of a French citizen in Iran and who is in detention charged with gathering and colluding against national security, saying that his lawyer is in contact with the Judiciary.

France�s foreign ministry on Friday said it had summoned the Iranian ambassador over the �intolerable� detention of two �French academics�, expressing �grave concern� that one was now on hunger strike.

The envoy �was reminded of France's demand that Fariba Adelkhah and Roland Marchal are released without delay and that the Iranian authorities show total transparency over their situation,� it said in a statement.

�As the President (Emmanuel Macron) and Foreign Minister (Jean-Yves Le Drian) have said on several occasions, their imprisonment is intolerable,� it added.