France – L’Humanité, July 21, 2025
The couple, considered “state hostages,” has been imprisoned by Tehran for more than three years, accused of spying for Israel. While their place of detention is unknown, their fate could be decided as part of upcoming negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program.
Three years, two months, and fifteen days — that is how long French nationals Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris have endured their ordeal since their arrest in Iran on May 7, 2022. A revolutionary court recently indicted them for “espionage on behalf of Mossad” (the Israeli intelligence service), “plotting to overthrow the regime,” and “corruption on earth” — each of these charges carries the death penalty.
At both the French Foreign Ministry and the Élysée Palace, the couple is referred to as “state hostages” — a shift in tone toward Tehran since the beginning of the year, though the term carries no legal weight. Including Kohler and Paris, four French nationals are believed to be currently detained by the Islamic regime. These include Lennart Monterlos, a young Franco-German arrested last month for an alleged offense, according to Iran’s Foreign Ministry, though his family insists he is innocent, as well as another individual whose situation remains entirely unknown.
No one knows where Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris are currently being held. Until recently, they were in Evin prison, in the north of the capital. That changed with the “Twelve-Day War” between Israel and Iran, from June 13 to 25: the prison was targeted by Israeli airstrikes — in violation of international law — resulting in dozens of deaths and injuries, and prompting guards to transfer many political prisoners to other facilities, including Fashafouyeh and Qarchak prisons. Kohler was placed in the latter for twenty-four hours before disappearing from all tracking, according to her sister Noémie, who says: “She hasn’t slept since the bombings (…), she’s very afraid it will happen again.”
