A French diplomat on Tuesday, July 1, visited two French nationals detained in Iran, Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, the foreign minister said, after their families demanded proof that they were alive after Israeli strikes. The fates of Kohler and Paris had been unknown since Israel targeted Iran's Evin prison in an air strike last week, before a US-proposed ceasefire between the belligerent parties came into force.
"We obtained a visit today from our chargé d'affaires in Iran," Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told lawmakers. A French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman confirmed the visit had taken place earlier in the day. However, the ministry did not specify where the visit occurred, amid uncertainty over the couple's whereabouts.
Iran's judiciary has said the Israeli strike on the prison had killed at least 79 people. It also said that the Iranian prison authority transferred inmates out of Evin prison, without specifying their number or identifying them. Several women prisoners have been transferred to Qarchak prison for women outside Tehran, which has a notorious reputation for its conditions.
On Friday, the families of Kohler and Paris demanded "proof of life," while a lawyer denounced their "forced disappearance." Kohler, 40, and Paris, her 72-year-old partner, have been held in Iran since May 2022 on espionage charges that their families reject.
Iran is believed to be detaining around 20 European nationals, many of whose cases have never been publicized, in what some Western governments, including France, describe as a strategy of hostage-taking aimed at extracting concessions from the West.
Three Europeans, who have not been identified, have also been arrested in the wake of the current conflict, two of whom stand accused of spying for Israel, according to the authorities.