The official Iranian television rebroadcast this Thursday on the site of the Arabic-language channel al-Alam what it presents as “confessions” of espionage by two Frenchmen arrested in May in Iran.
In the video montage, a French-speaking woman claims to be Cécile Kohler and to be an operational intelligence officer for the DGSE, the French foreign intelligence service.
Accused of “undermining security”
Iran announced on May 11 the arrest of two Europeans “who entered the country with the aim of unleashing chaos and destabilizing society.” The French authorities had denounced his arrest “unfounded” and asked for his “immediate release”.
Tehran then accused two “French trade unionists” arrested in May of “undermining the security” of the country in early July.
A French union source had identified them as Cécile Kohler, a leader of the Fnec FP-FO teachers’ union and a French teacher at Yvelines, and her husband Jacques Paris.
“Preparing the conditions for the revolution”
She specified that they were sightseeing in Iran during the Easter holidays at the time of her arrest.
In the recording released Thursday, the woman claims that she and her husband were in Iran “to prepare the conditions for the revolution and the overthrow of the Iranian Islamic regime.”
It was, according to his statements, to finance strikes and demonstrations and even to use weapons “to fight against the police.” According to the man in the video, who also speaks French, the DGSE’s goals “were to put pressure on the government” of Iran.
Source: BFM TV
