Three years of detention for French nationals Kohler and Paris

French nationals Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, accused of “espionage” by Iran, reach the milestone of three years in detention on Wednesday, imprisoned under extremely harsh conditions and now overcome with despair, according to their families.

This 40-year-old literature teacher from eastern France and her septuagenarian partner were arrested on May 7, 2022, on the last day of a tourist trip to Iran, and are incarcerated in the notorious section 209, reserved for political prisoners, of Tehran’s Evin prison.

Accused of “espionage” by the Iranian authorities and considered “state hostages” by Paris, they are officially the two last French nationals imprisoned in Iran, which holds several other Europeans. “It’s very, very hard. We’re exhausted, we never imagined it could last this long,” says Noemie Kohler, Cecile’s sister, to AFP on the eve of the anniversary, for which about forty solidarity rallies will be organized across France.

“Cecile and Jacques are increasingly desperate and believe in it less and less,” says the young woman, who tirelessly warns about the prisoners' fate and their “absolutely destructive” conditions of incarceration.

Subjected to “forced confessions” broadcast on Iranian state television a few months after their arrest, having had only four consular visits in three years, the two French nationals are, according to French diplomacy, subjected to conditions “comparable to torture under international law.”

Lights are kept on 24 hours a day, with 30 minutes of exercise two or three times a week, rare and short closely monitored calls to their relatives—the last one was on April 14. The families describe conditions corroborated by the accounts of former French detainees in Iran. They are also subjected to intense psychological pressure. “For several months, they’ve been told a verdict is imminent, that it will be extremely severe, they’re given expectations each time, and nothing ever happens,” recounts Noémie Kohler.

“Hostage diplomacy”

In 2023, 2024, and 2025, at least five French nationals have been released, after several months or even years of detention, but Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris have the unfortunate record of three full years of incarceration, including three months in total isolation.

No official explanation has ever been provided for the conditions of release of other prisoners, which, according to the French authorities, did not involve any concession.

Paris and other European chancelleries with citizens detained in Iran accuse Tehran of practicing “hostage diplomacy,” to secure the release of some of its own nationals or to exert influence over the highly sensitive negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program, which have been stalled for years, aiming for a lifting of sanctions.

Relations between France and Iran have worsened in recent weeks with Paris’s threats to impose new sanctions against Tehran, the arrest in France at the end of February of an Iranian woman, Mahdieh Esfandiari, for condoning terrorism, and the upcoming trial of a Franco-Iranian influencer for the same charge.

France is also on the verge of filing a complaint before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for the violation of the rights of Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, a decision hailed as a “major turning point” by the families, but with no short-term effect.

“Unfortunately, there aren’t really any hopeful signs,” acknowledges Kohler. “Our only leverage is mobilization, making as much noise as possible in the hope that it will reach Iran,” she says.

The young woman is in contact with former French “hostages,” notably Benjamin Brière, who spent three years in detention between May 2020 and May 2023.

“There is great solidarity, it helps us enormously because it allows us to have a window into what is happening there, and also keys to understanding to prepare for their return,” recounts Kohler.

She is also in contact with the families of some European prisoners, including the wife of Ahmadreza Djalali, an Iranian-Swedish academic sentenced to death and detained in Tehran for nine years now.