A court in Iran has convicted two French citizens of spying and given them heavy prison sentences, Iranian authorities said on Tuesday, in a case that has been a longstanding source of tensions between France and Iran.
The Fars news agency, which is affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, identified the two defendants as Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, who have been held in Iran since 2022 on charges that France has called baseless.
The Mizan news agency, which is overseen by Iran’s judiciary, announced the convictions, although it did not name the defendants. They were found guilty of spying for French intelligence services, conspiring to undermine Iran’s national security and cooperating with Israeli intelligence services, the news agency reported.
One was sentenced to a total of 32 years in prison, and the other to a total of 11 years in prison and 20 years in exile, according to Mizan, although it was not immediately clear what that entailed.
The news agency reported that their detention periods would be “deducted from the final sentence,” suggesting the sentences would run concurrently, not consecutively. The verdict can be appealed to Iran’s Supreme Court within 20 days.
France’s foreign ministry declined to comment on Wednesday. But the detention of Ms. Kohler and Mr. Paris has become a major sticking point in relations between Iran and France, which has repeatedly and strenuously called the charges against them baseless.
Iran has used the detention of foreign and dual citizens as a tool of its foreign policy for nearly five decades. Britain, France, the United States and others have accused Iran of detaining people to use them as diplomatic bargaining chips to press for the release of Iranian prisoners abroad or to free frozen funds.
Ms. Kohler, 41, a literature professor, and her partner, Mr. Paris, a retired professor in his 70s, were visiting Iran as tourists in 2022 when they were arrested. They were detained in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, where dissidents and political prisoners are held.
French authorities have likened the conditions Ms. Kohler and Mr. Paris face in Evin to “torture,” saying they are in near total isolation and have almost no access to consular visits.
The convictions raised the possibility that Iran could now be ready to swap or release Ms. Kohler and Mr. Paris, who are the only French citizens remaining in Iranian custody. Other French citizens arrested in Iran on similar charges have often been released once their court cases have ended.
Last week, an 18-year-old French-German cyclist who had been arrested in Iran in June on spying charges was released and returned to Europe shortly after his acquittal.
Jean-Noël Barrot, France’s foreign minister, said last week of Ms. Kohler and Mr. Paris that “we have strong prospects of bringing them home in the coming weeks.”
“We remain fully mobilized and demand their immediate and unconditional release,” Mr. Barrot told France Inter radio.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, suggested last month that Ms. Kohler and Mr. Paris could be exchanged for Mahdieh Esfandiari, an Iranian woman living in the French city of Lyon who was arrested this year and accused of promoting and glorifying acts of terrorism online. Iran has called her detention arbitrary.
“A lot of work has been done in this regard, and now we have reached a point where the issue of her exchange with French prisoners in Iran is nearing its final stages,” Mr. Araghchi said at the time in a televised interview.
But Asghar Jahangir, a spokesman for the Iranian judiciary, said this week that Ms. Esfandiari’s case and that of Ms. Kohler and Mr. Paris were “two separate issues,” making it unclear whether a prisoner exchange was possible.
France’s foreign ministry, citing the ongoing legal proceedings against Ms. Esfandiari, has declined to comment on her case. She is expected to stand trial in January.
Aurelien Breeden is a reporter for The Times in Paris, covering news from France.
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