Persian Realm

PARIS (AFP) -- An Iranian-French journalism student who had been prevented from leaving Iran for nearly a year was en route to Paris on Friday, the French foreign ministry said.

Mehrnoushe Solouki, a 38-year-old graduate student from Montreal, Canada, was arrested in February in Iran while working on a documentary film on the Iraq-Iran war.

Solouki was freed in March after posting bail and had since been under house arrest in Tehran pending the outcome of an investigation. Iranian authorities do not recognize dual citizenship and insisted Solouki was an Iranian national.

Solouki boarded an Iran Air flight from Tehran that was due to land in Paris on Friday morning, according to a diplomatic source in Tehran.

"We are pleased that Madame Solouki is returning to France," said foreign ministry spokeswoman Pascale Andreani.

The journalism student was arrested after interviewing relatives of members of Iran's armed opposition, the People's Mujahedeen.

Iranian authorities confiscated her notes and film footage and called her in for questioning.

The French foreign ministry declined to give details about the case. A website set up by her supporters (www.freesolouki.org) said she was acquitted this week and authorised to leave Iran and would soon return to Canada.

Solouki said in November that Iranian authorities had accused her of "attempting to produce a propaganda film."

She has complained of being held in inhumane conditions, sleeping on the floor of a jail cell and being subjected to daily interrogations.