French pair held in Iran for over 3 years ‘free and on their way to France,’ says Macron

By AFP 7 April 2026, 4:44 pm

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Portraits of French national Cecile Kohler (L) currently imprisoned in Iran with her partner French national Jacques Paris (C) along with a placard reading "Freedom for Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris arbitrarily detained in Iran for over two years in appalling conditions" outside the Palais Bourbon, France's National Assembly, in Paris, on March 25, 2025. (Bertrand GUAY / AFP)

Two French nationals held in Iran are on their way back home, President Emmanuel Macron says, following their release in November after more than three years in prison on espionage charges.

“Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris are free and on their way to France, after three and a half years in detention in Iran,” the French president writes on X.

A source at the French foreign ministry says they left Iran at dawn in a diplomatic convoy with the French ambassador and “are currently in Azerbaijan.”