Iran has released two French nationals who had been detained there for more than three years, French President Emmanuel Macron said.
Cécile Kohler, 41, and her partner Jacques Paris, 72, were released from Evin prison, Macron announced on Tuesday, with the French foreign minister later confirming that they were “safe” at the Tehran embassy “before their final release”.
“I welcome this first step. The dialogue continues to allow their return to France as quickly as possible,” Macron said.
The two men, arrested in May 2022 during a tourist trip, would be the last French nationals detained in Iran.
Last month, they were convicted of spying on behalf of France and Israel and received long prison sentences, according to Iranian state media.
A number of Europeans have been detained by Iran in recent years. France has accused Iran of taking hostages and keeping its nationals in conditions close to torture, which Tehran has denied.
In a statement to the AFP news agency on Tuesday, the two men’s Paris-based legal team said the release of Kohler and Paris had “ended their arbitrary detention which lasted 1,277 days.” The AFP said their families insisted they were completely innocent.
Their release comes more than a month after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said a deal to exchange French detainees for an Iranian woman held in France was almost complete. Iran had said Kohler and Paris could be released as part of the deal.
Mahdieh Esfandiari, detained in France since February for promoting terrorism on social media, was conditionally released by French authorities last month.
