(Paris) French senators from all political stripes submitted a letter to the Iranian embassy in France on Tuesday demanding the “immediate release” of three French people detained by Tehran and considered by the French government as “state hostages”.
In this letter, of which AFP had a copy and which socialist parliamentarian Rachid Temal placed in the embassy mailbox, 79 senators draw the attention of the Iranian ambassador in Paris Mohammad Amin Nejad “to the fate” of Cécile Kohler, Jacques Paris and a third Frenchman named Olivier, whose name is not public.
They are “unjustly detained in Iran,” they write.
“It’s a symbolic gesture” when the embassy refused to receive this missive in person, Rachid Temal told journalists on site. The letter will also be officially sent by post to the ambassador.
On the eve of the International Day Against Torture, the signatory senators demand that the conditions of detention of the three French people “respect the international texts of which the Islamic Republic of Iran is a co-signatory, namely the Universal Declaration of Human Rights , the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as well as the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations”.
“We will continue this important fight so that they have good conditions of detention immediately, but above all [to obtain] their release as quickly as possible,” added Rachid Temal. “They are state hostages because they are French. And so we, France, must do everything so that they are released immediately,” he insisted.
The couple formed by Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris were arrested in May 2022, accused of being spies.
Noémie Kohler, Cécile’s sister, expressed to the press her serious concern about the state of her sister’s physical and psychological health.
“We have very little information on his real state of health and it is very distressing,” she stressed, explaining that the last call to their mother dates back to April 13, whereas until then the calls were usually spaced 4-5 weeks apart.
“The calls are very short, four to five minutes, and are under close surveillance. His speech is constrained,” she continued, expressing her great sadness at not having any “comforting” information to communicate to her about a possible release.
“It’s terribly difficult,” she said.
Following three consular visits, the last of which dates back to February, Cécile’s family learned that she was detained in Section 209 of Evin prison (Tehran), one of the harshest with windowless cells. and a light on day and night.
The three thirty-minute outings per week are “sometimes canceled”, she sleeps “on the floor” and she has not had the twenty books that her family had sent her, Noémie Kohler also said.
The senators request the intervention of the Iranian ambassador to obtain the immediate transfer of Cécile Kohler and her companion “from section 209 in which they are incarcerated to the political prisoners’ quarter, the rigor of which is less critical.”
In addition to the senators, Jean-Luc Romero, deputy mayor of Paris in charge of human rights, was present in front of the Iranian embassy, avenue d’Iéna.
“Iran is the last country on human rights, on press freedom, well on everything,” he lamented. “We are next to our three French people who are hostages. The Paris Council will unanimously vote, I am convinced, next week, on a new wish calling for their release.