Iran releases two French nationals imprisoned for three years

According to French President Emmanuel Macron, Iran has released two French nationals who have been held indefinitely for more than three years on spying-related charges, though it’s not yet known when they will be allowed to return home.

The last French citizens to be officially detained in Iran, Cecile Kohler, 41, and her partner Jacques Paris, 72, were on their way to the French embassy, Macron said in “immense relief” on X on Wednesday.

He praised this “first step” and claimed negotiations were aimed at bringing them back to France as quickly as possible.

While on an Iran trip in May 2022, the pair were detained. While their families claim that the trip was solely touristic in nature, France had condemned their detention as “unjustified and unfounded.”

Although Paris is retired, both teachers are among a number of Europeans who were entangled in what activists and some Western governments, including France, claim was a deliberate attempt by Iran to take advantage of the West’s concessions.

According to Esmaeil Baghaei, a spokesman for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the judge who oversees the case has set them on “conditional release” on bail and says they will remain under surveillance until the next stage of the judicial proceedings.

Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot confirmed to France 2 TV that the Iranian ambassador was in “good health,” but he would not provide specifics about their departure date.

Their 1, 277-day arbitrary detention was ended with the release, according to a statement from their Paris-based legal team to the AFP news agency.

In response to the US-Israel 12-day war against Iran and the reimposition of UN sanctions in the standoff over the Iranian nuclear program, which Tehran claims is purely for civilian purposes, Tehran is dealing with a sensitive subject at this time.

Some Iranians are concerned that Israel will use the sanctions, which are already putting the country under further economic strain, as an excuse to attack once more, as it used the UN’s resolution from June as a pretext for a war that was supported by Israeli officials and the general public.

After a closed-door trial last month, the French pair’s sentences on suspicion of spying for France and Israel totaled 17 years for Paris and 20 for Kohler.

After being moved from Evin following an Israeli attack on the prison in the June War, concern grew over their health.

In what activists called a “forced confession,” a practice that detainees in Iran frequently engage in, which rights groups claim is equivalent to torture, Kohler was shown on Iranian television in October 2022.

Even though “all we know for now is that they are out of prison,” her parents, Pascal and Mireille, told AFP in a statement that they were “immense relief” that the pair were now in a “little corner of France.”

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) was saisied by France, alleging that their detention was a result of a policy that “targets French nationals traveling in or visiting Iran.”

However, the ICJ abruptly dropped the case at France’s request in September, sparking rumors that closed-door negotiations were taking place between the two nations to secure their release.

According to Iran, the duo could be freed as part of a swap agreement with France, which would also result in the release of Iranian Mahdieh Esfandiari.

Esfandiari was detained in France in February on suspicion of spreading “terrorism” through social media, according to French authorities.

She was set to go on trial in Paris starting January 13; Tehran applauded Tehran’s decision to release her on bail last month.

When France 2 questioned whether there had been a deal with Tehran, Barrot declined to comment.

Swedish-Iranian academic Ahmadreza Djalali, who was sentenced to death in 2017 on espionage charges, is one of the Europeans whose families vehemently disagrees.