ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - An Iranian national convicted in France of promoting terrorism and sentenced earlier this year returned to Tehran after the release of two French nationals by Iran earlier this month, shortly before the United States and Iran announced a ceasefire.
Mahdieh Esfandiari, an Iranian university student in France, was accused of posting comments on social media, including describing the Palestinian militant group Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel as an act of resistance.
Iran has been accused of detaining foreign nationals to use as bargaining chips in negotiations with Western countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom.
Iranian authorities detained Cecile Kohler, 41, and Jacques Paris, 72, two French nationals and trade unionists, in May 2022. They were later handed lengthy sentences on charges of spying for Israel and France.
“I offer my condolences to the people of Iran and freedom-seeking people around the world for the martyrdom of our leader,” Esfandiari said upon arrival in Tehran, referring to the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in a joint Israeli-US strike on February 28. “There is no freedom of expression in France; the court’s sentence was very unfair.”
Esfandiari was arrested in February last and held in detention on charges of promoting terrorism.
Iran and France appeared to have reached a prisoner exchange agreement late last year. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in September that Tehran and Paris have agreed on prisoner exchanges. French President Emmanuel Macron said two months later that the two French nationals had been freed from the notorious Evin Prison in northern Tehran but remained in the capital.
France has repeatedly distanced itself from the air campaign launched by Israel and the United States on February 28, which saw nearly 20,000 targets struck across Iran during six weeks of war. Washington and Tehran announced a two-week ceasefire, brokered by Pakistan, last Wednesday. The truce has been largely holding.
Macron posted a video of Kohler and Paris at the Elysee Palace on the same day the ceasefire took effect.
“For us, this is a fresh start. We’re not broken,” Paris said in brief remarks at the presidential palace, vowing to speak out about their ordeal, according to France 24. “We kept our hopes up right to the end,” Kohler added, saying they had been subjected to “daily horror” in Tehran’s Evin Prison.
Esfandiari, described by Iranian state media as an activist for Palestinian rights, entered Iran overnight through the Razi border crossing from Turkey.
Several other Western nationals remain detained in Iran, including Craig and Lindsay Foreman, two British nationals who were arrested in January 2025 during a motorcycle journey through the country. They have reportedly been sentenced to 10 years each on spying charges.