Locked in a windowless cell with the lights on day and night, French teacher Cécile Kohler and her partner Jacques Paris on Wednesday marked three years in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison. As the anniversary passes, Kohler’s sister has told RFI their situation is unbearable and deteriorating fast.
“They are at the end of their strength. Jacques’s face is more and more marked by the detention – you can feel he is dying slowly in that cell,” Noémie Kohler told RFI. “Cécile and Jacques are increasingly desperate and are less and less optimistic.”
Kohler, 40, and Paris, who is in his seventies, were arrested on 7 May 2022 at the end of a tourist trip to Iran. They are accused of spying – charges they strongly deny.
They are being held in section 209 of Tehran’s Evin Prison, an area reserved for political prisoners. They are the last known French citizens still detained in Iran and are considered “state hostages” by the French government.
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Conditions ‘equivalent to torture’
France’s foreign ministry says the couple are being held in conditions that “amount to torture under international law”.
They have no furniture and continue to sleep on the floor. The lights remain on 24 hours a day and they are allowed outdoors just two or three times a week, for no more than 30 minutes at a time.
Whether they are allowed out depends on prison guards and weather. Phone calls are rare, short and tightly monitored. The most recent, on 5 May, lasted just eight minutes.
“She told us she writes poems in her head,” Noémie said. “She repeats them every night so she doesn’t forget them, because after three years, she still has nothing to write with.”
Noémie also described the mental pressure her sister and Jacques are under.
“For several months they have been told that a verdict is imminent, that it will be extremely severe. They are given deadlines each time and nothing ever happens,” she said. “It’s psychological torture.”
A few months after their arrest, Iranian state television broadcast “confessions” by the pair, which France said were forced.
Their lawyers have still not been granted access to their case files. “Their right to a defence has been completely denied,” Noémie said. “We have no reliable information about the legal process.”
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Campaign for freedom
French President Emmanuel Macron marked the anniversary with a message on social media, saying France was working “tirelessly” to free them.
“I assure their families that our support is unwavering,” Macron posted on X.
Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot also posted a video message describing Kohler and Paris as “hostages” and “victims of the Iranian regime”.
“They are kept in inhumane conditions that amount to torture,” Barrot added. He also urged French nationals not to travel to Iran.
France has said it will file a formal complaint against Iran at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. While the move has been welcomed by the families, it is not expected to lead to a breakthrough in the short term.
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Diplomatic tensions
The case comes amid worsening ties between Paris and Tehran.
In February, an Iranian woman was arrested in France on terrorism-related charges. A Franco-Iranian influencer is also due to go on trial on similar accusations. France has threatened new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme.
The couple are among several Europeans held by Iran. Some European governments say these detentions are politically motivated.
One of the others still in prison is Swedish-Iranian academic Ahmadreza Djalali, who was sentenced to death in 2017 on spying charges his family says are false.
Dozens of rallies were planned across France on Wednesday to draw attention to Kohler and Paris’s case.
“They’ve become pawns in something far bigger than them,” Noémie said. “We just want them home.”
