French couple held as prisoners in Iran ‘at the end of their tether,’ relative says

The lives of a French couple held by Iran for over three years who were this week handed lengthy jail sentences for espionage are at risk, their families warned Thursday, as France condemned their conviction on “baseless” charges.

Cecile Kohler, 41, and Jacques Paris, 72, were arrested in May 2022 and have been detained ever since.

They are among a number of Europeans still held by Iran in what several European governments, including France, describe as a deliberate strategy of hostage-taking by Tehran to extract concessions from the West.

“The French state is responsible, every day that goes by, for the survival of Cecile and Jacques,” Noemie Kohler, Cecile’s sister, told reporters.

The detainees’ current location is unknown after they were moved from Tehran’s notorious Evin prison in the wake of the Israeli strike on the facility in the June war.

She said she had spoken to the pair on Tuesday “for eight minutes via video call” under heavy surveillance, with the brief communication still offering no clues over where they were being held.

“It was a distress call,” Kohler said. “They told me they were exhausted,” she added, saying the pair are “at the end of their tether.”

Cecile Kohler told her sister over the phone call she could not endure “another three months or even a few weeks of detention.”

Anne-Laure Paris, the daughter of Jacques Paris, said she wanted to be “the mouthpiece for his exhaustion, his despair, his distress and his anger.”

“My father told me: ‘I am staring death in the face,'” she added.

They confirmed that the sentence, initially announced Tuesday by the Iranian judiciary, amounted to 17 years in prison for Jacques Paris and 20 years for Cecile Kohler.

The families insist they are wholly innocent and were only visiting Iran as tourists.

Complete mobilization

Kohler and Paris “were arbitrarily sentenced… to very long prison terms,” French Foreign Ministry spokesman Pascal Confavreux told reporters in Paris.

“The charges against them, whatever they may be, are completely unfounded. We call for their immediate release,” he added.

France had filed a case with the Hague-based International Court of Justice over the couple’s detention, saying they were held under a policy that “targets French nationals traveling in or visiting Iran.”

But in September, the ICJ suddenly dropped the case at France’s request, causing disappointment among the families.

“If there is one thing that we should absolutely not doubt, it is the full and complete mobilization at all levels of the state to obtain their immediate release,” said the French foreign ministry spokesman.

France has repeatedly protested about their case, saying Kohler and Paris were in conditions akin to torture in Tehran’s Evin prison and had been denied proper consular protection.

Iran, which has previously carried out exchanges of Westerners for Iranians held by the West, has previously said the couple could be freed as part of a swap deal with France, which would also see the release of Iranian Mahdieh Esfandiari.

Esfandiari was arrested in France in February on charges of promoting terrorism on social media, according to French authorities. She is due to go on trial in Paris from January 13.

An 18-year-old French-German cyclist arrested this year, Lennart Monterlos, was released earlier in October by Iran after a court acquitted him of espionage charges.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.