French-Iranian filmmaker held in Teheran for a year allowed to go home

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Iran allowed a French-Iranian filmmaker to leave the country on Friday after having barred her exit for nearly a year, a media advocacy group said. Mehrnoushe Solouki was flying to Paris, said Hajar Smouni of Reporters Without Borders. Solouki, a graduate student at Quebec University, was detained by Iranian authorities in February of 2007 and released the next month. But she was still barred from leaving the country - accused of intending to commit propaganda through her efforts to film a documentary about the eight-year Iraq-Iran war in the 1980s. She had arrived in Iran in December 2006. France's Foreign Ministry had repeatedly expressed concern about Solouki's case. The ministry declined immediate comment Friday about the matter.