PARIS (AFP) – France has expelled a 28-year-old Iranian engineering student suspected of links to the country’s nuclear programme, the Le Parisien daily reported Thursday.
The student, Farshad Mobasher Fard, was detained Monday when he appeared at a police station to reapply for his residence permit, and was expelled on Wednesday.
The newspaper said French authorities declined to specify the reasons for the expulsion, with the court documents saying only Fard’s "presence in France represents a threat to public order" and citing a UN resolution that bans travel of people connected with the country’s controversial nuclear programme.
The UN resolution also bars countries from allowing Iranians to pursue specialist study that would be useful to the programme.
"This is completely ridiculous … they are completely mistaken," Fard told the daily in a telephone interview before his expulsion.
"I have never worked in the nuclear sector," added Fard, who was studying at Paris’ Ecole des Mines.
Fard said he believes the problem was due to his family’s industrial valve business.
A company with the same name is involved in Iran’s nuclear programme, but after explaining that and providing many documents, he said he was given permission to study in France in 2005.