Two New Zealand travel bloggers who went missing four months after arriving in Iran have left the country safely following secret talks between the two governments, Wellington announced on Wednesday.
Bridget Thakwray and her husband Topher Richwhite, the son of one of the archipelago’s richest men, arrived in Iran from Turkey in early July.
Very quickly, the newlyweds became silent on social networks that feed with pictures of their travels.
For months, their approximately 300,000 admirers, increasingly worried about them, sent them messages, which were ignored. At the same time, the New Zealand government preferred to remain silent about them.
On Wednesday, the island nation’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that the government had “worked hard” for the couple’s “(safe exit)” during the “difficult” period.
Their living conditions in the Islamic Republic are unclear. Iranian officials told AFP that the pair had not been detained or arrested, and that the New Zealand government was careful not to subject them to any detention.
Westerners are often detained by the Iranian government. Several releases have come in exchange for concessions from governments on ongoing sensitive issues, with Tehran accused of engaging in “hostage diplomacy”.
Many countries are advising their nationals against traveling to Iran.
Christopher Richwhite, in his thirties and the son of one of New Zealand’s wealthiest bankers, moved there with friends before the couple embarked on their world tour.
His wife, Bridget, in her 20s, set up the fashion website in 2017, a year before they started traveling.
“Something went wrong”
They traveled the planet in a Jeep 4×4.
In a video posted in July, which has since been removed from social media, Mr Richwhite described them being stopped at the Iranian border, where their vehicle was inspected. He said that he received instructions on what to wear and how to behave.
One of their fans, Chris Laws, a retired teacher living in Canada, said the couple’s GPS tracker had been in the same spot for days.
“They never stay in one place, in the middle of nowhere, for long,” Los told AFP. “Because they often shared photos and videos, it was obvious to me that something was wrong.”
Ms Ardern did not elaborate on the nature of the talks, but insisted she was not shy about criticizing Iran’s bloody crackdown on protests that have killed at least 141 people, including children, over a month, according to an Iran Human Rights (IHR) report. ), an NGO based in Oslo.
The disappearance follows a pair of British-Australian bloggers detained by Iran for several months in 2019, particularly on suspicion of espionage. On the day of their release, Tehran announced the return of the Iranian student who had been detained in Australia for more than a year.
Later, Reza Dehbashi, a doctoral student at the University of Queensland near Brisbane, was arrested in Australia for allegedly “purchasing state-of-the-art American military equipment in Dubai and attempting to transfer it to Iran” in violation of sanctions. Americans.
The New Zealand government maintains diplomatic relations with Iran and has had an embassy in Tehran since 1975. Iran has repeatedly accused outside powers of fomenting the protests.
Tehran announced in late September that it had arrested nine foreign nationals, including from France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the Netherlands.
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