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Radio France Internationale
Radio France Internationale
World
Michael Fitzpatrick

Iran airs alleged confessions of French couple accused of spying

Iranian state TV on October 6, 2022, aired a video showing two French citizens detained for "spying". REUTERS - LISI NIESNER

Iranian state television on Thursday broadcast what the authorities in Tehran claim are "confessions" by two French nationals, five months after the pair were arrested in the Islamic republic.

In a video aired on the Arabic-language Al-Alam channel, French teachers' union official Cécile Kohler says she is an "agent of the DGSE", the international branch of the French intelligence service.

Kohler and her partner Jacques Paris have been detained in Iran since 7 May and stand accused by authorities of seeking to stir labour unrest in the country.

Iran in May announced that it had arrested two French nationals who had entered the country on tourist visas.

Paris slams charges as baseless

France condemned the arrest of the pair as "baseless" and called for their immediate release.

In the video recording, Kohler says she and Paris were in Iran "to prepare the conditions for the revolution and the overthrow of the Iranian Islamist regime".

She added they had planned to finance strikes and demonstrations, and even use weapons "to fight against the police".

According to Paris, who also appears in the video, the DGSE's objectives are "to put pressure on the Iranian government".

Ageing American arrives in Abu Dhabi

An 85-year-old Iranian-American arrested in Tehran more than six years ago and who requires urgent medical treatment has landed in Abu Dhabi, the State Department said on Wednesday, with the United States pressing for the release of three other citizens.

Baquer Namazi, a former UNICEF official, was detained in February 2016 when he travelled to Iran to press for the release of his son Siamak, who had been arrested in October of the previous year.

Namazi "is now in Abu Dhabi after departing Iran for Muscat; he has been reunited with his family and will soon receive urgently needed medical treatment," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

Blinken added that the United States remains "committed to securing the freedom of all remaining wrongfully detained US citizens in Iran and around the world."

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