An Iranian court has sentenced two French citizens to lengthy prison terms for allegedly spying for France and Israel, the judiciary’s official website reported on October 14, just days after Tehran and Paris suggested progress had been made on a prisoner swap.
One individual was sentenced to six years in prison for espionage on behalf of the French intelligence service, five years for “conspiracy to commit crimes against national security,” and 20 years in internal exile for “alleged intelligence collaboration with Israel.”
The second defendant received 10 years for allegedly spying for France, five years for “conspiracy to commit crimes against national security”, and 17 years for “aiding and abetting” intelligence cooperation with Israel.
The report said the sentences can be appealed within 20 days.
Although the judiciary did not name the defendants, Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris are the only French nationals that are known to be held in Iran currently.
France 24 reports they are the pair concerned. In July, the French state-owned broadcaster reported that, according to their relatives and diplomatic sources, the pair had been charged with "spying for Israel."
Kohler and her partner, Paris, were arrested in Tehran in May 2022 as they were wrapping up a sightseeing holiday in Iran.
Iranian state media have alleged that the couple associated with the main teachers’ union, an allegation the family denies. They have been accused of fomenting unrest.
A video aired by Iranian state media in October 2022 showed Kohler and Paris “confessing” to espionage; rights groups say such televised confessions are coerced and have condemned the practice.
“There is no independent court in Iran,” said Fariba Adelkhah, a French-Iranian academic arrested in 2019 at Tehran’s airport and sentenced to five years for alleged national‑security offenses; she was released in 2023.
“We’re all spies unless proven otherwise,” she told RFE/RL’s Radio Farda. Adelkhah said defendants in security cases face “Kafkaesque” proceedings and argued that Kohler and Paris did not receive a fair hearing.
Comparing Kohler’s detention to her own, Adelkhah said the 35‑year‑old is enduring harsher conditions because she is being held in solitary confinement.
Iran and France signaled movement on a potential prisoner swap this month, with officials in both capitals saying talks had made progress on a framework that could secure the release of Kohler and Paris in exchange for Mahdieh Esfandiari, and Iranian student who was detained this year for anti‑Israel social media activity.
A separate court in Iran acquitted and freed Franco‑German cyclist Lennart Monterlos last week.
Even though UN human rights experts have decried a “dramatic escalation” in executions in Iran, the powerful Guardian Council on October 1 approved harsher sentences for spying and collaboration with Israel and the United States.
Days earlier, a UN panel revealed that Iranian authorities have executed over 1,000 people since the start of the year -- a figure that Amnesty International called the most in at least 15 years.
