Release date
An Iranian court announced Tuesday that it has sentenced two French nationals to a total of 63 years in prison on charges of espionage and national security.
The semi-official Fars news agency identified them as Cecil Kohler and Jacques Paris.
They have been detained in Iran since 2022 on charges that France has denounced as “unjust and baseless.”
French President Emmanuel Macron and Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrault have repeatedly called for their release.
As Tehran pressures French authorities to release the Iranians, they could be sentenced to prison terms, which could be appealed to Iran’s Supreme Court within 20 days.
Iran’s Revolutionary Court in Tehran issued the preliminary verdict because the trials are held behind closed doors and defendants often do not have access to evidence allegedly collected against them, according to the judicial Mizan news agency.
The court accused the two men of working for French intelligence and cooperating with Israel.
Kohler and Paris were arrested after meeting with Iranian teachers protesting and participating in an anti-government rally, Iranian media reported at the time.
France identified the two as a teachers’ union employee and his partner on vacation in Iran. Concerns about their safety grew after the 12-day Iran-Israel conflict, in which Israel bombed Tehran’s notorious prison in June.
In September, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said his country was close to signing a prisoner exchange deal with France.
According to French media, translator Mahdieh Esfandiari, who has lived in the French city of Lyon since 2018, was arrested in February on terrorism-related charges for allegedly posting on Telegram about the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza War.
Last week, Iran released a teenage French-German cyclist who went missing while in Iran in June, according to the Paris Press Agency. Iran has not acknowledged the release of Lennart Montellos.
Tehran is known for detaining dual nationals and Western nationals and using them as bargaining chips in diplomatic negotiations.
Additional sources of information • AP