France reacts, shortly after the broadcast of a video where we see two French people presenting “confessions” of espionage. For the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which describes these two French people for the first time as “state hostages”, this video is “an unworthy, revolting, unacceptable staging”. “This masquerade reveals the contempt for human dignity that characterizes the Iranian authorities,” added the French ministry in a statement, calling for the “immediate release” of Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris.
The two French are members of a teachers’ union
These two French people, identified as members of a teachers’ union, “have been arbitrarily detained in Iran since May 2022, and as such constitute state hostages”, continues the Quai d’Orsay. Their “alleged confessions extracted under duress have no basis, any more than did the reasons given for their arbitrary arrest”, adds the ministry. “We hold the Iranian authorities responsible for their fate and their treatment, as for all French nationals arbitrarily detained in Iran at this time”.
Iran broadcast a video on Thursday presented as “confessions” of espionage by the two Frenchmen, on the site of al-Alam, the Arabic-speaking channel of the official television. Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris had been arrested at a time when the country was the scene of demonstrations by teachers who were demanding reforms for an increase in their salaries and calling for the release of colleagues arrested during previous mobilizations.
A broadcast against the background of demonstrations
The broadcast of this video also occurs against the backdrop of other demonstrations, triggered on September 16 by the death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, after her arrest by the morality police. According to NGOs, more than a hundred demonstrators were killed in the repression of this protest. “Such manipulations and practices worthy of the show trials of the worst dictatorial regimes will not divert international attention from the legitimate aspirations of the Iranian people”, assures the Quai d’Orsay.
More than twenty nationals of Western countries, mostly dual nationals, are detained or stranded in Iran, which NGOs condemn as a policy of hostage-taking to obtain concessions from foreign countries. Among them is the Franco-Iranian researcher Fariba Adelkhah, arrested in June 2019 and then sentenced to five years in prison for undermining national security, which her relatives have always fiercely denied.
Frenchman Benjamin Brière was arrested in May 2020 and sentenced to eight years and eight months in prison for espionage, which he disputes.