dubai
Reuters
—
A lower Iranian court has sentenced two French nationals accused of spying for France and Israel to heavy prison terms, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Tuesday, a week after Paris and the Iranian government showed progress in talks for their release.
Cecile Kohler and his partner Jacques Paris are the only French nationals detained in Iran, where they have been held since 2022. Renato Montellos, an 18-year-old French-German cyclist who was arrested this year, was released last week after a court acquitted him of espionage charges.
Without naming the defendants, the court sentenced a French national to six years in prison for spying on behalf of France, five years in prison for conspiracy to commit crimes against national security, and 20 years in prison for assisting Israeli intelligence.
The other defendant was sentenced to 10 years in prison for being a spy on behalf of France, five years in prison for conspiracy to commit crimes against national security, and 17 years in prison for assisting Israeli intelligence.
Both defendants can appeal the sentences to a higher court.
France has repeatedly accused Iran of arbitrarily detaining Koehler and Parris, holding them in near-torture conditions in Tehran’s Evin prison, and denying them adequate consular protection. The Islamic Republic denies the accusations.
Iran has accused France of arbitrarily detaining Mahdiyeh Esfandiari, an Iranian student living in the French city of Lyon, who was arrested this year for anti-Israel social media posts.
Iranian Justice Ministry spokesman Asghar Jahangir said on Tuesday that the charges against Esfanjali were baseless and France had denied him temporary bail.
“It took some time to trace him, but the pursuit has not stopped…We are working towards his unconditional release,” he added.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have detained dozens of foreigners and dual nationals on espionage-related charges in recent years. Human rights groups and Western countries have accused the Iranian government of using foreign detainees as bargaining chips, a charge Iran denies.
