Iran says French couple imprisoned since 2022 'in good health'

Iran said Tuesday that French couple Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, jailed since 2022, are "in good health", denying recent claims their condition was worsening.

"The two are... in good health, so any claim regarding their poor condition is denied," judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir told reporters in Tehran, citing a report from the authorities.

Kohler and Paris have been jailed in Iran since May 2022 on charges of espionage, a capital offence in the Islamic republic.

In October 2022, Iran's state television aired what it called "espionage confessions" by the two detainees.

The French government condemned the broadcast as "shameful, revolting and unacceptable", labelling the pair as "state hostages".

Last month, dozens of people protested in Paris over what Kohler's sister, Noemi Kohler, described the couple's "alarming" physical and psychological condition.

In a phone interview with AFP, Noemi Kohler said the couple, held in the high-security Evin prison, were "only allowed out three times a week that they almost never see the light of day and that they sleep on the floor, without mattresses."

She also alleged their lawyers had never been allowed to visit them.

Jahangir, however, said the couple "have been in contact with their relatives through the consulate", adding that they "have all the human and legal rights."

Europeans in Iran

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot had previously met with families of French nationals detained in Iran, saying his government was pushing for their immediate release.

Another French citizen, identified only by his first name, Olivier, has been in detention since October 2022. French authorities have not released details of his case.

They are among several European passport holders in Iranian custody, some of them dual nationals. Iran does not recognise dual citizenship.

On October 28, Iran executed 69-year-old German-Iranian Jamshid Sharmahd, who was sentenced to death in February 2023 for the capital offence of "corruption on Earth".

Sharmahd had been convicted of playing a role in a 2008 mosque bombing in the southern city of Shiraz, in which 14 people were killed and 300 wounded.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock denounced the execution, saying Sharmahd's killing showed that an "inhumane regime rules in Tehran" and vowed that it "would have serious consequences".

Baerbock later announced three Iranian consulates in Germany would be shuttered over the execution - a move that triggered a "strong protest" from Tehran.

Several other Europeans remain detained in Iran, which has conducted multiple prisoner exchanges with Europe and the United States in recent years which were often mediated through Oman and Qatar.

In June, Iran exchanged former Iranian official held in Sweden for a European Union diplomat and a second Swede, in a prisoner exchange mediated by Oman.

In 2023, Oman also facilitated the release of six European detainees in Iran including Belgian aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele, who had been convicted of espionage and spent more than a year in custody.