Mizan News Agency, the state-run outlet affiliated with Iran’s judiciary, reported that two French citizens accused of “espionage” in Iran have been sentenced to a total of more than 60 years in prison, without revealing their names.
On Tuesday, October 14, Mizan wrote that one of the defendants was sentenced to six years in prison for “spying on behalf of the French intelligence service,” five years for “assembly and collusion to commit crimes against national security,” and twenty years in exile for “intelligence cooperation with Israel, considered as waging war against God.”
The other defendant was sentenced to ten years in prison for “spying on behalf of the French intelligence service,” five years for “assembly and collusion to commit crimes against national security,” and seventeen years for “aiding intelligence cooperation with Israel.”
The report added that the initial verdicts for the two French citizens, who were arrested on March 9, 2023, have been communicated to their lawyers.
According to the judiciary, the verdicts can be appealed to the Supreme Court within twenty days of notification.
If the verdicts are upheld, the maximum sentences — twenty and seventeen years — will be enforced for the two individuals.
Iranian Authorities Transfer Detained French Couple to Undisclosed Location
Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris are among the most well-known French citizens currently imprisoned in Iran.
Kohler and Paris, both trade union activists, were arrested by Iran’s security agents in May 2022 after meeting with several labor and teachers’ rights activists in Tehran.
France and other European Union member states have previously accused Iran’s regime of systematically taking foreign citizens hostage to exert political pressure on Western governments.
Officials of Iran’s regime have denied these accusations, claiming that the arrests were carried out according to legal procedures and rejecting allegations of mistreatment of prisoners.
A few hours before the publication of the news about the French prisoners’ sentences, Asghar Jahangir, the spokesperson for the judiciary, stated that the French government had not fulfilled its promise to release Mahdieh Esfandiari from prison.
Esfandiari is an Iranian citizen imprisoned in France for supporting the Hamas group and on charges of “glorifying terrorism.”
Previously, Iran’s regime Foreign Ministry had announced that Tehran was negotiating with Paris over a potential exchange of the two French citizens for Esfandiari.
