after the release of Louis Arnaud, who are the three other French people detained by Tehran?

He had been held in Iranian prisons for almost two years. Louis Arnaud arrived in France on the morning of Thursday June 13, after his release. Emmanuel Macron welcomed this outcome. The head of state calls on Tehran to release the other French people still detained in Iran. There are three of them.

“I’m thinking of Cécile, Jacques and Olivier.” It’s the message posted Wednesday evening by Emmanuel Macron on social networks. Cécile Kohler, 39, and Jacques Paris have been detained for two years. This couple went to discover Iran during the holidays. She is a literature professor, originally from Soultz, in Haut-Rhin. He is a retired Nantes resident. Tehran accuses them of espionage. According to the lawyer of Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, they are incarcerated in solitary confinement, in Evin prison, without access to the open air. Cécile Kohler’s family has not received any news for two months. “We know that, for example, she is in a nine square meter cell with other women who change regularly”, her sister Noémie Kohler testified on France Bleu Alsace. A petition to demand the release of the couple has already gathered more than 35,000 signatories.

Of the third French detainee, we only know the first name, Olivier. He was arrested at the end of summer 2022, at the same time as Louis Arnaud who had just been released, at a time when youth demonstrations in Iran made the authorities particularly nervous. They accused Western countries of being at the origin of these movements.

French diplomacy denounces “arbitrary incarceration”. Last May, Paris denounced in a press release “the Islamic Republic’s odious practice of forced and public confessions, as well as the inhumane and undignified conditions of detention inflicted on our compatriots”. The Quai d’Orsay speaks of“state hostages” and calls for their release.