French Foreign Minister denounces spy charges against couple imprisoned in Iran

France's Foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot on Thursday denounced the spy charges against two French nationals imprisoned in Iran for three years. 

Cécile Kohler and her partner Jacques Paris were accused of spying for Israel, conspiring to overthrow the regime and "corruption on Earth."

Barrot said France had not been formally notified by the Iranian authorities of the charges against the two French citizens.

"If the charges evoked were confirmed, we would consider them totally unjustified and unfounded", Barrot said.

"We demand the immediate, unconditional release of Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris."

Kohler, 40, and her partner Paris, 72, were arrested in May 2022 during a trip to Iran. Until last month, they were detained at the Evin Prison in Tehran. 

French president Emmanuel Macron on Thursday night called Iran's detention of Kohler and Paris a "provocation", an "affront" and an "unacceptable choice of aggression", and said he intented to speak with Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian.

“The answer won't be long in coming", Macron said on French channel BFMTV.

A French diplomat was able to meet the couple earlier this week as their families demanded proof they were alive following recent Israeli strikes on the prison.

The visit took place at a prison south of Tehran but, like some other prisoners, Kohler and Paris were transferred from Evin following the Israeli strikes and their location is unknown, Kohler's sister Noémie Kohler said.

“We’re really extremely worried about their psychological state and the trauma of the bombings", Noémie Kohler said in an interview broadcast Thursday on BFMTV.

The charges against Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris are liable to the death penalty.