Iran has released two French nationals who had been imprisoned for more than three years on espionage charges that their families and the French government long described as baseless, President Emmanuel Macron announced Wednesday, calling it an “immense relief.”
The two detainees — Cécile Kohler, 41, and her partner Jacques Paris, 72 — were freed from Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison and transferred to the French embassy, according to French officials. Macron described the release as a “first step,” saying efforts are under way to secure their return to France “as quickly as possible.”
Kohler and Paris, both teachers, were arrested in May 2022 while visiting Iran. Iranian authorities accused them of spying for France and Israel — charges that Paris and their families have denied. The pair were sentenced last month in a closed-door trial to 17 and 20 years in prison, respectively.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said they had been granted “conditional release” on bail and will remain under judicial supervision until further proceedings. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot confirmed that the two were “in good health” but declined to specify when they might be allowed to leave Iran.
Their release follows months of quiet diplomatic engagement and comes amid rising tensions between Iran and Western nations after the U.S.–Israel conflict with Tehran in June, which reignited global concern over Iran’s nuclear ambitions and triggered a new round of United Nations sanctions.
Observers believe the timing of the release reflects both international pressure and potential backchannel negotiations between Paris and Tehran.
France had previously taken Iran to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing it of targeting French citizens for political leverage, but withdrew the case abruptly in September — fueling speculation that a prisoner swap was being arranged.
Indeed, Iranian media hinted that the release of Kohler and Paris could be linked to the recent bail of Mahdieh Esfandiari, an Iranian citizen detained in France on terrorism-related charges. Barrot declined to confirm whether a deal had been struck.
Rights organizations have long accused Iran of “hostage diplomacy” — detaining Western nationals as bargaining chips in geopolitical disputes. Kohler’s case drew particular outrage after she appeared in a televised “confession” in 2022, which advocacy groups said was coerced under duress.
Her parents, Pascal and Mireille, told AFP that they felt “immense relief” knowing their daughter and her partner were safe inside the embassy compound — “a little corner of France,” as they put it.
The pair’s release narrows the list of Western detainees still held in Iran, but several remain, including Ahmadreza Djalali, a Swedish-Iranian academic sentenced to death in 2017 on espionage charges widely condemned as fabricated.
For Paris, the episode marks another test of Macron’s delicate diplomacy toward Tehran — balancing the defense of French nationals with broader efforts to defuse tensions over Iran’s nuclear program.
