France has filed a case against Iran at the UN's top court over two French citizens held by Tehran for the past three years, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot has said.
The announcement comes as Iranian negotiators are on Friday set to meet their counterparts from the UK, France and Germany in Turkey for talks on Iran's nuclear programme. A meeting scheduled for earlier this month was scrapped after Iran-US nuclear talks were postponed.
Cecile Kohler, 40, a literature teacher from eastern France, and her partner Jacques Paris, in his seventies, were arrested on May 7, 2022, during the last day of a tourist trip to Iran. They have been held on spying charges, which they vehemently deny.
In the case filed at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), France accuses Iran of "violating its obligation to provide consular protection" to the pair, who "have been held hostage ... detained in appalling conditions that amount to torture", Mr Barrot told France 2 television on Friday.
They are among several Europeans still held by Iran in what some countries, including France, regard as a strategy of hostage-taking to extract concessions from the West at a time of tension over Tehran's nuclear programme.
Ms Kohler and Mr Paris are the last known French detainees in Iran and their families say they face tough conditions in jail.
French consular representatives in Iran have been allowed to visit them briefly four times. Paris has said that is insufficient to guarantee their rights under international law and the 1963 Vienna Convention on consular relations. Under the convention, consular representatives should be allowed to inspect detention conditions and provide legal support.
Court procedures at the ICJ are expected to take up to two years. “It’s important to re-establish the truth about the little regard Iran has for international law,” a French diplomatic source said.
Paris also hopes to use the case to put pressure on Tehran over its treatment of the detained French citizens. “Where Iran tries to put pressure on France through its hostage diplomacy, we respond with legal pressure,” the source added.
The family has welcomed the ICJ case. "We welcome this action at the highest level of the state. It is a major turning point, because the fundamental rights of Cecile and Jacques have been flouted from the start," Naomi Kohler, Cecile's sister, said last month after Mr Barrot first announced his intention to launch legal proceedings against Iran. "This is an avenue we had suggested and we hope that it will move the matter forward."
The family's last phone call with Cecile was on March 4. "It's very difficult for us because we feel like she's starting to lose hope," her sister said.
France, as well as other European countries, have in recent years toughened their stance against Iran's human rights breaches and nuclear programme. Relations deteriorated further when it was reported that Iran was supporting Russia in its war on Ukraine, a western ally.
Four rounds of nuclear talks between the US and Iran, mediated by Oman, have been held since April 12. Iran has suggested it could accept to forgo highly enriched uranium in exchange for sanctions relief. If talks fail, European countries, including France, have threatened to reimpose sanctions on Tehran in October.
