Catherine Colonna urges Tehran to release French “hostages”

Seven French are detained in Iranian prisons. On Wednesday, the head of French diplomacy Catherine Colonna urged her Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian to release them. This request was made when the health of one of the “hostages”, Bernard Phelan, who also holds Irish nationality, has deteriorated considerably and is causing serious concern among his family and the French authorities.

“Once again, she demanded the immediate release of the 7 French hostages arbitrarily detained and respect for international law, and reiterated our condemnation of the repression” of the demonstrations, underlines the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Twitter.

Teacher, researcher or consultant

Among the seven French people are Cécile Kohler, a teacher and trade unionist, and her companion Jacques Paris, arrested in May 2022, the Franco-Iranian researcher Fariba Adelkhah, arrested in June 2019 then sentenced to five years in prison for undermining national security, as well as Benjamin Brière, arrested in May 2020 and sentenced to eight years and eight months in prison for espionage.

Bernard Phelan was arrested on October 3. He was then on a trip as part of his consulting activities in Iran for a tour operator. The support committee of Fariba Adelkhah and Benjamin Brière is organizing a rally in Paris on Saturday to denounce these arbitrary detentions.


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