The Foreign Minister made the announcement on Tuesday morning. Invited to the antenna of France Inter, Catherine Colonna stressed that in total, five French are currently held in Iran while so far only four have been officially recognized by Paris.
“I will have the Iranian foreign minister this afternoon to demand once again the immediate release of all our compatriots who are detained in Iran, currently there are five,” he said. “We must protect our community, it is in our hearts and in our actions,” added the minister.
Several arrests since 2019
Among the French citizens detained in Iran, Cécile Kohler, leader of the Fnec FP-FO teachers’ union, and her husband Jacques Paris, arrested last May and accused of espionage. His “confessions” broadcast last week on national television were described as a “masquerade” by the French Foreign Ministry.
Another French citizen detained in Iran, Benjamin Brière, arrested in May 2020 and sentenced to eight years and eight months in prison also for espionage, which he denies. In 2019, French-Iranian researcher Fariba Adelkhah was sentenced to five years in prison for undermining national security, something her relatives have always fiercely denied.
Tehran had announced in early October the arrest of nine foreigners, including a Frenchman, in the wave of protests that is currently shaking the country since the death of Mahsa Amini. But Paris had not confirmed the arrest of one of its nationals.
Source: BFM TV
