Relatives of French detainees in Iran denounce 'forced disappearance'

Desperate relatives of two French detainees in Iran demanded “proof of life” Friday after Israel struck their Tehran prison and a lawyer denounced their “forced disappearance”.

French national Cecile Kohler, 40, and her 72-year-old partner Jacques Paris have been held in Iran since May 2022 on espionage charges their families reject.

Their fate has been unknown since Israel targeted Tehran’s Evin prison in an air strike on Monday, before a US-proposed ceasefire between the Middle East foes came into force.

Iran’s prison authority transferred inmates out of the prison after it was hit, the judiciary said on Tuesday, but it is not clear how many inmates were moved or who they were.

“We don’t know if they are still alive, we don’t know where they are,” Noemie Kohler said at a press conference in Paris.

“We await proof of life immediately,” she added.

Anne-Laure Paris said she also had no idea where her father was.

“In view of the gravity of the situation, I am addressing you today, for the first time, because I’m scared for my father’s life,” she said at a press conference.

Chirinne Ardakani, the lawyer of the relatives, said: “Cecile and Jacques, state hostages arbitrarily detained in a cruel and inhuman manner in Iran, are missing.”

“In law, this is a forced disappearance,” she added.

They “could have been transferred to another prison”, be buried “under the rubble” or they could have been moved “into secret detention locations”, she said.

A French junior minister said on Wednesday that France had been assured that the French couple had not been wounded during the Israeli strike.

But Noemie Kohler said that this information “from the Iranian authorities” was “far from a guarantee”.

Rights groups say that Evin has been home to dozens of “political prisoners” innocent of any crime, including foreigners, and women who are kept in a separate wing. The prison is believed to have the capacity for hundreds of inmates.

The Israeli strike destroyed part of the administrative building of the large, heavily fortified prison complex in the north of Tehran.