Iranian court gives lengthy jail sentences to two French citizens on spying charges

An Iranian lower court handed heavy prison sentences to two French citizens charged with spying for France and Israel, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Tuesday, a week after Paris and Tehran indicated progress in talks to release them. 

Cecile Kohler and her partner Jacques Paris are the only two French citizens being held in Iran and have been detained since 2022. An 18-year-old French-German cyclist arrested this year, Lennart Monterlos, was released last week after a court acquitted him of espionage charges.

Without specifically naming the defendants, the court sentenced one French citizen to six years in prison for spying on behalf of France, five years in prison on charges of conspiracy to commit a crime against national security, and 20 years of imprisonment  for assisting Israeli intelligence services.

The other defendant was handed 10 years in prison for spying on behalf of France, five years in prison on charges of conspiracy to commit a crime against national security, and 17 years of imprisonment  for assisting Israeli intelligence services.

The two defendants can appeal their sentences to a higher court.

France has repeatedly accused Iran of holding Kohler and Paris arbitrarily, keeping them in conditions akin to torture in Tehran's Evin prison and not allowing proper consular protection. The Islamic Republic denies the accusations.

Iran has accused France of arbitrarily detaining Mahdieh Esfandiari, an Iranian student living in the French city of Lyon, who was arrested this year over anti-Israel social media posts.

Iran's judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir said on Tuesday that accusations against Esfandyari were baseless and that France had refused to release her temporarily on bail.

"Follow-ups have taken a while but they have not stopped... We are striving for her release without conditions," he added.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have detained dozens of foreign and dual nationals in recent years, often on espionage-related charges. Rights groups and Western countries accuse Tehran of using foreign detainees as bargaining chips, which Iran denies.