Iran Gives Two French Nationals Decades In Prison For Alleged Spying
France is outraged after Iran's judiciary and state media announced Tuesday that two French citizens have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms after being convicted on several charges, including espionage for Israel. They are also accused of spying on behalf of France, which the country has rejected as 'baseless'.
According to the judiciary's Mizan Online website, the individuals received several sentences for alleged offenses such as "spying for French intelligence," and "collaboration to commit acts against national security," as well as "intelligence cooperation with the Zionist regime."
The French nationals have since been identified in European media as Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris. The couple have been held at Tehran's notorious Evin prison since their arrests well over three years ago. They've now been slapped with sentences for consecutive convictions which total over 30 years each.
Paris has condemned the "arbitrary detention" and has said the couple has been denied proper consular protection. But Tehran has continued to maintain they are spies for Mossad.
According to a backgrounder compiled by a Western organization which has lobbied for their release:
Cécile Kohler is a French national and educator who heads the National Federation of Education, Culture and Vocational Training (FNEC FP-FO), reportedly the largest federation of teachers’ unions in France. Jacques Paris is her partner.
Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security announced on May 11, 2022, that it had arrested two Europeans for "promoting unrest and instigating chaos," in the words of the Iran International news service. The ministry claimed the two had entered Iran in order to exploit ongoing protests to undermine Iranian society and had met with the Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations, which has organized numerous demonstrations.
On May 12, a French trade union stated that the two detainees as Kohler and her unnamed husband and said they had traveled to Iran as tourists for Easter. Iran International reported that the two had arrived in Tehran on April 29, stayed two days, and then visited the cities of Kashan and Esfahan before being arrested during their return to Paris on May 8.
Iran may be trying to use the pair as bargaining chips, given that as Reuters has reported, "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."
The French couple's families say they survived explosions during Israeli strikes on Tehran’s Evin prison on June 23, and were then quickly transferred to another location, and are under the oversight of Iran's Intelligence Ministry.
A Tehran court sentenced two French nationals on multiple charges:
— Iran Nuances (@IranNuances) October 14, 2025
• Spying for #France (6 & 10 yrs)
• Collusion against nat’l security (5 yrs each)
• Intel cooperation with Israel (20 & 17 yrs).
This is a preliminary court ruling & the verdict is subject to appeal.#Iran pic.twitter.com/xZgg6nkvvp
The events of the June 12-day war with Israel and the US has only hastened Iranian efforts to round up spies and uncover covert plots against the Islamic Republic. Iranians caught passing information to Israel face execution.
