French pair back in Paris after Iran 'terrible ordeal'

Cecile Kohler, 41, and Jacques Paris, 72, arrived on a commercial flight, landing at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris shortly before 9:00 am (0700 GMT).

They were met on the tarmac by foreign ministry officials and were due to meet Macron at the Elysee Palace later in the day.

The pair had been under house arrest at the French embassy in Tehran ever since being freed in November, with their fate even more uncertain after US-Israeli strikes on Iran started on February 28.

"This marks the end of a terrible ordeal lasting three and a half years," Macron said at a meeting of top defence and security officials on Wednesday morning.

"We are absolutely delighted that they have arrived on French soil," he said, once again thanking Oman for its mediation efforts.

An Iranian diplomatic source welcomed the news on Wednesday.

"The ceasefire announced in Iran and the return of the two French nationals is a double cause for satisfaction," the source said.

Officials and their supporters celebrated the return.

"We are waiting for their return to France so we can give them a big hug," Anne-Laure Paris, Paris's daughter, told AFP on Tuesday.

The pair left Iran early Tuesday in a diplomatic convoy with the French ambassador and arrived in Azerbaijan's capital Baku later in the day.
'Current situation'
They departed after US President Donald Trump on Monday warned of widespread strikes on civilian infrastructure once a deadline he issued for the Islamic republic to reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz had expired.

Trump said on Tuesday he was suspending bombing of Iran for two weeks.

A source close to French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said that "what secured their release was the current situation."

"If anything dramatic had happened to our compatriots, the reaction would have been fierce," the source added.

Kohler and Paris -- both teachers, although Paris is retired -- were arrested in May 2022 at the end of a trip to Iran that their families say was for tourism.

At the end of a closed-door trial, an Iranian court in October sentenced them to jail on espionage charges their families say were fabricated.

The tribunal jailed Paris for 17 years and Kohler for 20 years for allegedly spying for France and Israel.

They were released the following month.

The pair were among a number of Europeans caught up in what activists and some Western governments describe as a deliberate strategy of hostage-taking by Iran to extract concessions from the West.

Tehran had earlier suggested that Iranian national Mahdieh Esfandiari could be exchanged for Kohler and Paris.

Esfandiari was sentenced by a French court in February to one year in prison for justifying terrorism over comments she made on social media, including on Palestinian militant group Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Her house arrest order was lifted following the French pair's departure from Iran, her lawyer has told AFP.