Paris – With the lights kept on 24 hours a day and allowed outside for just 30 minutes a few times a week, a French couple held in Iran since May 2022 on Wednesday marked three years of incarceration in the Islamic republic, with no immediate prospect of an end to their ordeal.
Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, held on spying charges they vehemently deny, are jailed in extremely tough conditions and feeling increasingly hopeless, according to their families.
They are among a number of Europeans still held by Iran in what some European countries, including France, regard as a deliberate strategy of hostage-taking to extract concessions from the West at a time of tension over the Islamic republic’s nuclear programme.
Kohler, a 40-year-old literature teacher from eastern France and her partner Paris, in his 70s, were arrested on May 7, 2022, on the last day of a tourist trip to Iran. They are held in section 209, seen as reserved for political prisoners, at Tehran’s Evin Prison.
They are the last known French detainees in Iran after some recent releases and are regarded as “state hostages” by the French government.
“It’s very, very hard. We’re tired. We never imagined it could last this long,” Cecile Kohler’s sister Noemie told AFP ahead of the anniversary, which is expected to see dozens of rallies across France on Wednesday to draw attention to their plight.
“Cecile and Jacques are increasingly desperate and are less and less optimistic,” said Noemie, who leads the campaign for her sister’s release.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday that Paris was working “tirelessly” to free the couple.
“I assure their families that our support is unwavering,” Macron wrote on X social media. The pair were forced to make “confessions” broadcast on Iranian state television a few months after their arrest and have received only four consular visits in three years.