Iran has released two French citizens held for over three years, French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Tuesday.
Cécile Kohler, 41, and her partner, 72-year-old Jacques Paris, were transferred out of Tehran’s Evin prison and are now under French protection at the country’s embassy in the Iranian capital. France’s foreign minister confirmed they are “safe” as final arrangements for their return home proceed.
“I welcome this first step,” President Macron said, adding that diplomatic talks were continuing “to allow for their return to France as quickly as possible.”
The couple, arrested in May 2022 while travelling in Iran, were believed to be the last remaining French nationals detained by the Islamic Republic. Iranian state media reported last month that both had been convicted of spying for France and Israel, receiving lengthy prison sentences—allegations their families have consistently rejected.
Their lawyers, speaking to the AFP news agency, said the move ends “1,277 days of arbitrary detention.”
The case is the latest in a series of detentions involving European nationals in Iran, a practice France has described as state-backed hostage-taking—a claim Tehran denies.
The release comes weeks after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi signaled that a prisoner-swap deal involving French detainees and an Iranian woman held in France was nearing completion. The Iranian government had previously suggested that Kohler and Paris could be freed as part of the arrangement.
Mahdieh Esfandiari, an Iranian national arrested in France in February on accusations of promoting terrorism online, was conditionally released by French authorities last month. Photo by ninara, Wikimedia commons.