UK – Iran International, January 16, 2025
Two French nationals have spent nearly three years in Ward 209 of Tehran’s Evin Prison, their freed compatriot said, a secret detention facility notorious for harsh conditions which is operated by the country’s intelligence ministry.
In his first interview since his release in June 2024, Louis Arnaud described the harrowing realities of life in the ward, where prisoners face extreme isolation, constant surveillance and relentless psychological pressure.
“Jacques (Paris) and Cécile (Kohler) have been there for almost three years now,” Arnaud told FRANCE 24.
Arnaud, a banking consultant, was arrested in September 2022 while traveling through Iran and was sentenced to five years on national security charges he says were baseless.
Held in Ward 209 for six months, he described his cell as a windowless eight-square-meter room illuminated 24 hours a day and monitored by cameras. “Everything is done so that you are deprived of your humanity,” he said.
“You are completely shut from the world. The world ceases to exist. The only thing that reaches you are the screams and the yells of other prisoners coming from nearby cells. And you are completely also shut from your family and even more from the embassy, of course,” he added.
