PARIS – After more than three years of unlawful detention in Iran and weeks of stalled diplomatic negotiations, two French citizens have finally touched down on home soil, capping an extraordinary ordeal that unfolded against the backdrop of soaring regional conflict between Iran and the United States. Cécile Kohler, 41, and 72-year-old Jacques Paris crossed out of Iran by road on Tuesday, mere hours before a fragile tentative ceasefire was announced to end deadly cross-border clashes that have roiled the Middle East since Feb. 28. French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed the pair personally at the Elysee Palace Wednesday morning, framing their long-awaited release as a landmark diplomatic win for France. The two were initially granted prison release in November 2022 on spurious unsubstantiated charges, but were barred from exiting the country by Iranian authorities, forcing them to take shelter in the French diplomatic compound in Tehran for months before exit approval was granted Tuesday. In comments to reporters shortly after their arrival, Kohler described the moment as a narrow, hard-won escape. “We realize just how much we narrowly escaped, so to speak, because it could have been much worse,” she said, adding that the multi-stage journey left the pair exhausted after two straight days of travel without sleep. According to French officials, the pair traveled an approximately nine-hour overland route from Tehran to neighboring Azerbaijan in the care of French ambassador to Iran Pierre Cochard, before boarding a charter flight bound for Paris that landed Wednesday. A spokesperson for the Élysée confirmed that the release came after years of quiet diplomatic groundwork, but noted that urgent regional pressure sparked by the Iran-U.S. war forced negotiators to accelerate talks in recent weeks. Macron, who has worked to keep France distanced from direct involvement in the escalating Middle East conflict, has taken a lead diplomatic role in engaging with new Iranian leadership amid the recent crisis. He became the first Western head of state to hold direct talks with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on March 8, just days after the latest outbreak of open hostilities, with two follow-up phone conversations held on March 15 and March 24. French officials have publicly credited Oman with playing a critical mediating role in breaking the months-long deadlock, helping shuttle sensitive communications between Paris and Tehran in the final stages of negotiations. “Omani authorities made it possible, in the final stretch, to convey a certain number of messages within the Iranian system,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told France 2 television Wednesday. “On Sunday evening, Easter Sunday, I received a call from my counterpart, Iran’s foreign minister, confirming that the decision had been made on their side.” Barrot declined to share further details of the closed-door negotiations, noting that all terms would remain confidential per the agreements reached between the two sides. But Iran’s state-run news agency IRNA released a statement Tuesday claiming the release was part of a formal prisoner swap agreement, in which France agreed to release Iranian national Mahdieh Esfandiari in exchange for Kohler and Paris. The Élysée has forcefully denied any such swap agreement was reached. Esfandiari was convicted in a French court last February on charges of inciting terrorism over public comments she made regarding the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel. She received a one-year prison sentence plus an additional three-year suspended term, and was permanently barred from entering French territory. She has since appealed the conviction, and had been held under house arrest while her appeal proceeded. Her attorney Nabil Boudi confirmed to the Associated Press that the house arrest order was lifted Tuesday afternoon, shortly after news of Kohler and Paris’ departure from Iran broke. Speaking publicly Wednesday, the two former detainees opened up about the brutal conditions they endured during their more than three years in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison, a facility long known for holding political prisoners and dissidents. Kohler called the facility “hell,” describing unrelenting daily horror for the pair throughout their detention. Paris added that the couple lived under constant psychological pressure during their detainment. “We had no right to read, no right to write. Whenever we left our cell, we were blindfolded,” he told reporters. “One of the goals was likely to break us. We are not broken. We will bear witness, we will speak out, and we will enjoy life again.” The pair were arrested while on a personal vacation in Iran in May 2022, a day before what would become more than three years of captivity cut short their trip.
French former detainees Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris return home after more than 3 years in Iran
