Tehran signals exchange deal for French and Iranian detainees

Iran has announced that two French citizens, detained by the Islamic Republic for more than three years, will be allowed to return home as part of a possible "exchange" for an Iranian citizen to be released by France within the next two months, Tehran’s foreign minister said on November 26.

In an interview with France 24 following talks in Paris with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, Abbas Araghchi stated that “an exchange was negotiated between us and France.”

The French citizens, Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, who were arrested in May 2022, were released from prison earlier this month. However, they remain at the French embassy in Tehran awaiting official permission to leave Iran.

Meanwhile, Iranian national Mahdieh Esfandiari was arrested in France in February on charges of promoting “terrorism” via social media, according to French authorities. She is scheduled to stand trial in Paris from January 13. Last month, she was released on bail and is now staying at the Iranian embassy in Paris.

“There has been an agreement, and indeed, we are waiting for the entire legal and judicial process to take place in both countries,” Araghchi said. “I hope, I think, that in the next two months… it will be completed and the exchange will take place,” he added.

France has neither confirmed nor denied the existence of such an exchange deal. French authorities have described Kohler and Paris as “state hostages” taken by Tehran to pressure France for concessions. Both were convicted on espionage charges that their families have consistently condemned as fabricated.

In recent years, dozens of Europeans, North Americans, and other Western citizens have been detained in similar circumstances. Iran has previously conducted exchanges of Western detainees for Iranians held abroad, but maintains that foreign prisoners are convicted in accordance with Iranian law.

“The verdict has been issued [against Kohler and Paris], but under Iranian law, prisoners can be exchanged in the interest of national security, and the exchange process is decided within the framework of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council,” Araghchi explained.

By Tamilla Hasanova