France – France 3, Oct. 09, 2025
Lennart Monterlos, 19, was held in detention in Iran for 111 days—nearly four months—in an Iranian prison, where he was accused of espionage. He has just been released and set foot on French soil on Wednesday, October 9.
A photo. And a face his family, based in Besançon in the Doubs region, had long hoped to see again. Lennart Monterlos, the 19-year-old Franco-German cycling enthusiast who was arrested and imprisoned in Iran in June before being released last weekend, arrived Thursday morning at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport. The young man, with shorter hair and wearing a light blue shirt, arrived around 9:20 a.m. before leaving the airport discreetly with his parents in an official black sedan.
Lennart Monterlos had been released from prison last weekend after being acquitted by the Iranian judiciary of espionage charges. He was then received at the French embassy in Tehran, while waiting for administrative documents that would allow him to leave the Islamic Republic.
After his arrival at Roissy, Lennart Monterlos was to be taken care of by doctors from the French Ministry’s Crisis and Support Center, as is customary after a return from detention abroad, according to Agence France-Presse. No information has been provided by either the ministry or the family’s lawyer regarding his physical or psychological state.
