“Our daughter, our sister, our friend Cécile has been arbitrarily detained in Iran for 200 days,” said Noémie Kohler in the preamble at the launch of the support committee for her sister Cécile on Tuesday evening at the Strasbourg Press Club. A “Freedom for Cécile” support committee, which comes at the same time as the Judicial Authority in Tehran warns that the French teacher, aged 38 and accused of espionage, will, with her companion Jacques Paris, soon be informed about her spell. “The two arrested French spies are still in police custody and the case is at the final decision stage,” said the spokesperson for the Judicial Authority, Massoud Sétayechi, quoted by the legal agency Mizan online. , reports AFP. A concomitance with the launch of the support committee which could seem “troubling”, concedes Maître Thierry Moser, renowned lawyer and recently retired but who, as a friend of the family, came to lend a hand for the organization of this committee. Because the objective is clear, deprived of the slightest access to Cécile Kohler, they wish to “break the silence” by bringing her a message: that the State, her family, her friends, and soon they hope, the whole of France , mobilizes for her.
“No information on where she is being held, on her conditions of detention,” says Naomie Kohler, sister and spokesperson for the support committee. “On his state of health”, nothing has been brought to the attention of the Kohler family, who have to content themselves with a single video broadcast by Iranian state television on October 6th. “A terrible video featuring false confessions extorted from Cécile under duress. The comments made to her are rude, absurd, and contrary to who she is deeply, to the values she has always defended, ”assures the spokesperson. A video that Paris had denounced as an “unworthy staging”, “a masquerade”. A video experienced for the family as “a shock of incredible violence”, produced “obviously under duress and after having been conditioned, broken”, assures Thierry Moser who denounces “an injustice”, “inhuman” conditions .
A “citizen of the world”, an “exceptional” woman
In solitary confinement, inaccessible, even “the place of his detention is unknown”, underlines his Naomie Kohler. “Deprived for 200 days of an independent lawyer, of consular access which is denied to him, we know nothing of his physical and psychological state, worries the sister. The testimonies of other people who have been detained suggest the worst. »
The young woman drew a long portrait of her older sister, “left for the Easter holidays” to visit a country she had dreamed of for years “and arrested on the way back from the airport, seven days later. Visibly very moved, Naomie Kohler, also accompanied by Marine Scié, colleague, neighbor and close friend of Cécile Kohler, painted the portrait of a woman appreciated by all, “caring”, “devoted”, “a citizen of the world who has a lot travelled”, “solar”, who “loves life, parties, dance and people”.
“She has an infinite need to cultivate herself through her reading and her encounters, she is deeply humanistic and altruistic. She chose the path of teaching and trade unionism because she is driven by her commitment to others. “Often also described as an “exceptional” person, both for the attention she paid to everyone, and “her commitment to her teaching profession”.
After indicating her support for the other French detainees, the young spokesperson promised to want to “hang on and fight for her until her return”. A website will soon be put online for all those who want to get information or support the “Liberté pour Cécile” committee.