An Iranian woman who said she experienced emotional and social isolation in France has been accused of orchestrating an online hate campaign targeting Iran's adversaries.
Mahdieh Esfandiari appeared in a Paris court on Tuesday in a case that has attracted attention because her return is sought by Tehran in exchange for two French citizens. She faced charges of "glorifying terrorism online" and "online incitement to an act of terrorism". She faces seven years in prison and a €100,000 ($116,450) fine.
Wearing a pastel scarf and grey dress over a pair of jeans, the 39 year old cut a defiant figure as the trial, expected to last four days, got under way.
"I'm here today to finally speak about the facts, as there have been a lot of wrong stories about me in the media and a lot of lies," she said before entering the courtroom.
Resistance account
A self-proclaimed admirer of late Iranian Maj Gen Qassem Suleimani, Ms Esfandiari is accused of being behind a pro-Iran, pro-Hezbollah and pro-Hamas online group that featured a Telegram account called Axis of Resistance and had 12,000 subscribers, court documents viewed by The National said.
The account described sported an image of Maj Gen Suleimani as its profile picture and was linked to an X account.
The Telegram account was particularly active in justifying the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023. It published allegedly anti-Semitic images, some AI-generated. For this, Ms Esfandiari is accused of racist insults.
In her defence, she told the court she no longer administered the account after the summer of 2023 and, as a consequence, was unable to post messages to it, though she continued to repost some to the related X account. She said the aim was to inform a French-speaking public on geopolitical issues in Iran, the Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq.
Hostage swap
Iranian authorities have demanded her transfer to Iran in exchange for approving the return of French citizens detained there. When Ms Esfandiari was released on bail in October after spending eight months in detention, she went to the Iranian embassy complex in Paris.
Meanwhile, Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris have been living at the French embassy in Tehran since their release in November following more than three years in prison in Iran.
They were convicted on espionage charges but France has described them as "state hostages". Iran has previously carried out exchanges of westerners for Iranians held by the West but insists foreigners are convicted in line with the law.
France has downsized the workforce at its embassy in Tehran after mass protests broke out nationwide last week, in one of the biggest challenges to the clerical leadership since the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted the shah. The Iranian ambassador to France was summoned by Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on Tuesday. "France condemns in the strongest possible terms the state violence that was indiscriminately unleashed on peaceful protesters," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
French authorities have refused to acknowledge a link between Ms Esfandiari, Ms Kohler and Mr Paris. For Nicolas Salomon, a lawyer representing the European Jewish Organisation, which initiated the case against the Iranian, there is "little doubt" the cases are linked.
"Ms Esfandiari found refuge in the Iranian embassy right after she was freed, and shortly after Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris were also released," Mr Salomon said.
Kurdish origins
Ms Esfandiari told the court that she had moved to France from Iran in 2018 to study for a master's degree in language sciences in the south-eastern city of Lyon with the view of improving her translation skills.
She said she grew up in a middle-class family in Tehran, as one of seven children. Her parents are ethnic Kurds, originally from northern Iran, but moved to the capital when her father took a job in the army's administration.
She said she converted to Shiite Islam aged 20 after a process of self-discovery. She added that she had originally studied French at university by default, after failing maths and English entrance exams, but eventually came to enjoy the language.
Ms Esfandiari also described clashing with her family over the anti-government protests in Iran in 2022 that were fuelled by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested after wearing her hijab "inappropriately". The Sunni-majority Kurdish region in Iran is historically a bastion of anti-government protests.
"It was a difficult period for me," she said. "My family attacked me and said I supported the supreme leader [and] that I wasn't in Iran, and I didn't understand why."
Speaking about protests in Iran, she said they were always infiltrated by "foreign agents". They are responsible for killing protesters, not security forces, she said. At least 648 people have been killed in Iran during the latest protests amid an internet shutdown. Reports widely lay the blame on state security forces.
A psychological report carried out while she was in detention found she had a "rigid way of thinking", and had suffered "emotional and social isolation in France" that "had broken her cultural reference points". The October 7 events "acted like a catalyst for her radical views". In statements to investigators, she denied having the intention to glorify terrorism.
Ms Esfandiari was arrested in February 2025 after emptying her bank accounts and appearing to be ready to return to Iran. The Axis of Resistance account has been under investigation for a year and had close links to far-right, anti-Semitic, French-Swiss public figure Alain Soral, also accused in the case, who lives in Switzerland and did not appear on Tuesday.
Detention 'trauma'
Ms Esfandiari's detention was spent in isolation, she told the court, in conditions she described as "very difficult" because she was forced to remove her headscarf. "Certain agents were not at the level [expected] of France," she said. "I'm still traumatised. I didn't understand the relentless legal persecution against me with the terrorism label."
A statement from Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed Ms Esfandiari was granted refuge at the Iranian embassy in Paris after she was freed. In Iran, protesters had gathered a few weeks before her release outside the French embassy to protest against her detention.
In her statement to the court, she did not mention staying at the Iranian embassy. She said she still lived in Lyon and gave her lawyer's address in a western suburb of Paris.
Ms Esfandiari was one of two of a group of five to appear in court, the other being a 43-year old French convert to Islam, Maurizio Busson, described in court documents as having contracted a "fixed duration marriage" with her, in an apparent reference to temporary marriages that are permitted in Shiite Islam.
Asked why she had created an "Axis of Resistance 3" Telegram account in December 2024, one month after Mr Busson had been arrested for his links to "Axis of Resistance 2", she said she had not fully understood the reasons for his arrest. The original accounts were suspended having been flagged for alleged anti-Semitism.
In response to suspect cash withdrawals made by the couple, Ms Esfandiari told investigators that they received cryptocurrency payments "to preserve them from the danger of an eventual arrest", though it was not specified who made the transfers.
The pair were the only accused present in court on Tuesday. All five stand accused of criminal conspiracy for having worked together on the social media accounts.
