A high -risk trip. Lennart Monterlos, a 19 -year -old Frenchman, has not given his loved ones since June 16, when he was in Iran for a bike trip.
The disappearance of the young man was considered “disturbing” by the minister responsible for French abroad Laurent Saint-Martin, this Monday, July 7 in RTL, “because Iran has a deliberate policy of taking hostages from Western.”
Year of Cesura
Originally from Besançon (Doubs) and only a graduate from Abibac (Franco-German Baccalaureate), Lennart Monterlos began in August 2024 for a crazy project: Rallying Japan By Bicycle while crossing Europe and Asia. A trip of more than 35,000 km through around thirty countries, and a way of making a “césura” before higher education.
Passionate about sport and in particular the climbing, the young man said he wanted to “leave his comfort zone.” In search of “strong emotions” and “human meeting”, he also saw in his project a “commitment to the environment,” he explained in an online kitten launched to finance his project.
After the stages in Central Europe and Eastern Europe, then in Türkiye, Lennart Monterlos arrived in Iran on November 24, as we can see in the application of polar travel monitoring. According to the Republican of the East, the young Bisontin returned home at Christmas to find his relatives, before resuming his trip a few months later, on May 24, from Varzaneh in the center of Iran.
“On June 25, I am in Afghanistan”
In a video posted on Instagram on June 6, the young adventurer indicates that his visa expires on June 25 and will have to leave the country quickly. “I’m going to take some autop steps that will avoid driving less than 40/50 degrees in the desert and 25, I’m in Afghanistan,” he said.
In the last visible video in his account, published on June 15, the young man evokes his “adventures and misadventures” in the Iranian desert dunes.
Did you know the dangers inherent on such a trip? In a video published on June 12 and since it was eliminated, the young traveler joked about the various reasons to avoid this country (Iran) at all costs, “evoking the sunny climate, the architectural heritage, the landscapes or the low prices.
“Above all, listening to the media is a super dangerous country and does not come to Iran,” he concluded, showing warnings of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
I will formally not recommended travel “
In the description of the publication, he acknowledged that his passage through this country had “been the subject of animated debates” with those around him.
On its website, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs “formally advises the” French nationals who go to Iran.
“Iran implements a deliberate policy of taking Western hostages and points to the French passage citizens who accuse of spying,” he recalled, while the French Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris have been held for three years in the country.
In addition, the country “is the objective of terrorist acts on their territory by organizations that have demonstrated their ability to action and their determination to continue their attacks,” added Quai d’Orsay, in particular the terrorist group Daesh-Khorassan.
The young man’s disappearance arouses the concern that she was reported in the middle of the war between Israel and Iran, while the Hebrew state bombarded her neighbor.
Source: BFM TV
