Two French Nationals Freed from Iran After 3 Years

Two French nationals detained in Iran for more than three years on espionage charges have been allowed to leave the country and are en route to France, President Emmanuel Macron announced Tuesday. Cécile Kohler, 41, and Jacques Paris, 72, both teachers, departed Tehran at dawn in a diplomatic convoy accompanied by the French ambassador and were reported to be in Azerbaijan as of Tuesday morning.

The pair, arrested in May 2022 at the end of what their families described as a tourist visit to Iran, were convicted in a closed-door trial in October of that year. An Iranian court sentenced Paris to 17 years in prison and Kohler to 20 years for allegedly spying on behalf of French and Israeli intelligence services, charges that French officials and the detainees' supporters have called fabricated and unfounded. They were held in Tehran's Evin prison until their release in November, after which they remained under protection at the French Embassy in Tehran, unable to depart the country.

Their exit follows a bilateral agreement between France and Iran, under which the two were freed in exchange for the release of Iranian national Mahdieh Esfandiari. Esfandiari, convicted in a Paris...