A total of five French people are currently being held in Iran, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna announced on France Inter radio on Tuesday, while until now only four were officially recognized by Paris.
“I will have the Iranian Foreign Minister this afternoon to demand once again the immediate release of all our compatriots who are detained in Iran, there are currently five,” declared Catherine Colonna. “We must protect our community, it is in our hearts and in our actions,” added the Minister.
So far, France has officially had four of its nationals detained in Iran: the Franco-Iranian researcher Fariba Adelkhah, arrested in June 2019 then sentenced to five years in prison for undermining national security, Benjamin Brière, arrested in May 2020 and sentenced to eight years and eight months in prison for espionage, and two trade unionists, Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, arrested last May.
Tehran had announced at the beginning of October the arrest of nine foreigners, including a Frenchman, in the wave of protest which is currently shaking the country since the death of Mahsa Amini. But Paris had never confirmed the arrest of one of its compatriots.
The day after the broadcast of a “confession” video denounced by Paris, the families of the French couple arrested in Iran for five months alerted on Friday to “inhuman conditions of detention (…) for fallacious reasons”, with an “unimaginable psychological pressure”.
“We are devastated, exhausted and terrified”, write in a press release the families of Jacques Paris and Cécile Kohler, claiming to be “without any news” from their loved ones, fearing that they will be “kept in isolation with the only contact human that of their jailers and interrogators. The couple are “deprived of lawyers and are repeatedly denied consular access,” the statement also said.
VIDEO. In Iran, the protest continues, the repression too
The two French were arrested last May at a time when Iran was the scene of demonstrations by teachers demanding reforms for an increase in their salaries and calling for the release of colleagues arrested during previous mobilizations.
The Quai d’Orsay invited French people passing through Iran on Friday evening “to leave the country as soon as possible given the risks of arbitrary detention to which they expose themselves”, in an update of travel advice on its site.
“Any French visitor, including binationals, is exposed to a high risk of arrest, arbitrary detention and unfair trial”, indicates the ministry, specifying that “this risk also concerns people making a simple tourist visit”, and that “in the event of arrest or detention, respect for fundamental rights and the security of persons are not guaranteed”.