France – RFI, Dec. 26, 2025
Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris are spending Christmas and New Year’s at the French Embassy in Tehran, without knowing when they will finally be able to return home. The two French nationals were released from prison in early November, after more than three years of detention in Iran, but the legal and diplomatic entanglement is not over.
“It is yet another ordeal for them to spend the end-of-year holidays far from their loved ones,” said a representative of the families of Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris. The two French citizens were released from prison in early November after more than three years of detention in Iran. However, while awaiting the resolution of a legal and diplomatic impasse surrounding their situation, they remain at the French Embassy in Tehran. Their relatives say that the couple feels “well supported” within the diplomatic compound.
Arrested in 2022 while on a tourist trip, Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris had been sentenced to 20 and 17 years in prison respectively, notably for espionage on behalf of French and Israeli intelligence services. Before their release, they had served three and a half years in prison.
A return contingent on the situation of Mahdieh Esfandiari in France
Visiting Paris at the end of 2025, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi explained the situation clearly: the return of the two French nationals is linked to an exchange that Tehran says it negotiated with France. The return home of Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris would therefore be conditional on the judicial situation of an Iranian citizen, Mahdieh Esfandiari.
