Five French people are currently detained in Iran, the French Foreign Minister announced on Tuesday.
Catherine Colonna said, speaking to France Inter radio, that she would again demand, this afternoon, “the immediate release of all French compatriots” from the Iranian counterpart.
“Currently, five French” are detained in Iran, the minister added.
“I will be with the Iranian Foreign Minister this afternoon to demand once again the immediate release of all our citizens who are detained in Iran, currently there are five,” Colonna said.
“We must protect our community, which is in our hearts and in our actions,” added the minister.
Until now, France officially admitted that four of its citizens were detained in Iran: the French-Iranian researcher Fariba Adelkhah, arrested in June 2019 and sentenced to five years in prison for violating national security; Benjamin Brière, arrested in May 2020 and sentenced to eight years and eight months in prison for espionage; and two trade unionists, Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, arrested last May.
Tehran had announced in early October the arrest of nine foreigners, including a Frenchman, in the wave of protests that are currently shaking the country since the death of Mahsa Amini. But Paris had never confirmed the arrest of one of its citizens.
Last week, Tehran released a video with “confessions” by Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, which provoked a virulent reaction from Paris, which denounced an “undignified staging” and invoked “state hostages” for the first time.
The French government on Friday urged French people passing through Iran to “leave the country as soon as possible, given the risks of arbitrary detention to which they are exposed.”
More than twenty citizens of Western countries, most of them with dual nationality, are detained or detained in Iran, which non-governmental organizations condemn as a policy of taking hostages to obtain concessions from foreign powers.
* News updated at 09:03
Source: TSF
