IRAN - Jacques Paris and Cécile Kohler

IRAN - Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris Leave Iran for France

April 7, 2026:

April 7, 2026 - IRAN. Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris Leave Iran for France

The President of France announced that Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, two French citizens, have left Iran and are on their way back to France.

The couple had been released from Evin Prison in November last year after enduring three years of imprisonment, and since then had been staying at the French Embassy in Tehran. At the same time, Iranian domestic media reported that this move was part of an understanding that led to the release of Mahdieh Esfandiari, an Iranian prisoner in France, and the withdrawal of France’s complaint against Iran at the International Court of Justice.

Emmanuel Macron, President of France, announced that “Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, after three and a half years of detention in Iran, have been freed and are on their way back to French soil.”
At the same time, IRNA reported that this step was taken as part of an understanding that resulted in Esfandiari’s release in France and France’s withdrawal of its complaint against Iran before the ICJ.

In November last year, Macron had also written in a post that “Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, after enduring three years of detention, were released from Evin Prison and are on their way to the French Embassy in Tehran.” Simultaneously, Fars News Agency, a media outlet close to Iran’s security institutions, released a video showing the release of Mahdieh Esfandiari, an Iranian citizen who had been detained in France on charges of supporting a militant group. After their prison release, the two French citizens were not permitted to leave Iran and had remained at the French Embassy in Tehran until now.

In October 2025, Mizan News Agency, the judiciary’s media outlet, reported that heavy prison sentences had been issued for two French citizens on charges of “espionage” and “intelligence cooperation with Israel.” The judiciary statement did not name the defendants. However, independent media reports and official statements by French authorities strongly indicated that these sentences concerned Kohler and Paris. At that time, the judiciary said the rulings could be appealed before the Supreme Court within 20 days of notification.

Ms. Kohler and Mr. Paris were arrested after traveling to Iran in 2022. In late May 2022, Iranian state television aired a report linking the detention of the two French nationals to teachers’ protest gatherings in the country. The report accused Kohler, a member of France’s education and culture labor federation, and her husband Jacques Paris of organizing “chaos and disorder,” and also linked teachers’ union activists Eskandar Lotfi, Masoud Nikkhah, Shaban Mohammadi, and Rasoul Bodaghi to the two.

Throughout their detention, the families of the two French nationals and French officials repeatedly rejected the charges against them and called for their immediate release. For more information on their vicissitudes, see HoC on 3 January 2023, 14 January 2025, 23 January 2025, 7 March 2025, 3 April 2025, 3 July 2025, 4 July 2025, 6 October 2025 and 5 November 2025.