France on Tuesday, May 7, accused Iran of employing a policy of state hostage-taking and blackmail, urging for the release of a French couple held in jail for the past two years.
Activists have long criticized Iran for its hostage-taking strategy to extract concessions from the West, marking a rare instance of a Western government speaking out against this practice.
“France condemns this policy of state hostage-taking and constant blackmail by the Iranian authorities,” the French foreign ministry stated. “France demands their immediate and unconditional release,” the ministry added. It also expressed solidarity with other European hostages imprisoned in Iran on fabricated charges.
Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris were arrested in Iran in May 2022 on charges of inciting labor protests, allegations refuted by their families. Apart from Kohler and Paris, two other French citizens are detained in Iran: a man named Olivier and Louis Arnaud, a banking consultant sentenced to five years last year on unfounded national security charges.
Kohler and Paris were subjected to coerced confessions broadcast on Iranian television, a tactic fiercely denounced by France.
In recent months, several foreign prisoners, including five Americans, were released in exchange for unfreezing Iranian funds in a South Korean account. However, the French citizens are among a dozen European passport holders, including dual nationals, imprisoned in Iran.
Among them, German Jamshid Sharmahd and Swede Ahmadreza Djalali face execution after being convicted on false charges. Also imprisoned is Swedish EU diplomat Johan Floderus, whom prosecutors seek to sentence to death on espionage charges, vehemently denied by his family. Activists highlight the targeting of Swedish nationals in retaliation for former Iranian prison official Hamid Noury’s life sentence in Sweden for 1988 mass executions in Iran.