French nationals Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris are “free and on their way to France, after three-and-a-half years of detention in Iran”, President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday.
Mr Macron also thanked Oman for its mediating efforts in securing their release, which was greeted with a standing ovation at the National Assembly.
The freeing of Cecile Kohler, 40, a literature teacher from eastern France, and her partner Jacques Paris, who is in his seventies, had been high on the agenda of the government since their arrest in May 2022 during a tourist trip to Iran.
Last year, the pair received prison sentences of 20 years and 17 years in prison respectively for spying on behalf of France and Israel. They denied the accusations.
In November, Iranian authorities transferred them from Evin prison to the French embassy in Tehran, but they had not been allowed to leave its premises.
A French Foreign Ministry source said the couple left Iran at dawn Tuesday in a diplomatic convoy with the French ambassador and “are currently in Azerbaijan”. They are expected to arrive in France on Wednesday.
The French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said he had spoken to the pair. “They shared with me their emotion and their joy to return soon to their country and their loved ones,” he said in a social media post. His ministry said Mr Barrot had held discussions at the weekend with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi. The French minister had regularly described Mr Paris and Ms Kohler's living conditions in prison as “akin to torture”.
Iranian deal
Iranian state media IRNA said that a deal had been struck involving France withdrawing a complaint against Iran at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the release of an Iranian sentenced in France for glorifying terrorism. In the past months, Mr Araghchi had described their expected release as a prisoner swap.
The French government has never confirmed Iran's demands but dropped the ICJ case in September, five months after it first sued Iran for violating its obligation to provide consular protection to Ms Koehler and Mr Paris as specified in the 1963 Vienna Convention.
This came after a meeting between Mr Macron and his Iranian counterpart, Masoud Pezeshkian, in New York. At the time, France said the withdrawal of its request offered parties the possibility of settling their issues by means other than through judicial channels.
Iran had also focused its demands on the release of a 39-year old Iranian translator, Mahdieh Esfandiari, sentenced in February by a Paris court to four years in prison for glorifying terrorism. Three years were suspended, meaning she was unlikely to return to prison, as she had already served eight months in detention before trial.
Esfandiari appealed the decision, which automatically suspended both the prison sentence and a court order demanding she leave France, The National understands. IRNA said she “could return to Iran at any time”. It is not known where she is.
The release of the French couple came as US President Donald Trump threatened that “a whole civilisation will die tonight” unless Iran reaches a last-minute deal with the US to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Last Thursday, a container ship belonging to the French shipping group CMA CGM crossed the Strait of Hormuz, a sign that Iran may not consider France to be a hostile nation.
