“It is for her that we must not crack”. The family and entourage of Cécile Kohler, a French teacher and trade unionist detained in Iran since May, spoke out this Sunday for the first time. in The Latest News from Alsace (DNA)a few days before the creation of a support committee.
“Are we sure she’s alive when we don’t even know where she’s being held?” Their interest is not to kill her and she is certainly better treated than the Iranian detainees on the material level, but this treatment is inhuman,” her father, Pascal Kohler, told the regional daily.
No contact
Her family, who lives in Soultz in the Haut-Rhin, has had no contact with her since her arrest, and no French consular representative has been able to see her, explain the DNA. An “unbearable” situation for the parents, Pascal and Mireille, who are worried about Cécile’s “psychological state”. A support committee will be launched Tuesday in Strasbourg, the day of Sainte-Cécile. Noémie Kohler, her sister, will be the spokesperson.
Cécile Kohler, 38, was arrested with another Frenchman, Jacques Paris, while she was traveling in Iran, a country she had dreamed of visiting “for a long time”.
His relatives decided to speak publicly after the broadcast in early October by Tehran of a video presented as a “confession”, according to which Cécile Kohler worked for the French secret service. Paris had denounced an “unworthy staging” and evoked for the first time “State hostages”.
“Risks of arbitrary detention”
The Quai d’Orsay called, at the beginning of November, the French passing through Iran to “leave the country as soon as possible given the risks of arbitrary detention to which they are exposed”.
Family, friends and colleagues also want to make Cécile Kohler known. Trade unionist in charge of international relations at Force Ouvrière, this aggregate of modern letters chose to continue teaching to “stay in contact with the field, his colleagues and his students”, resume the DNA.
“Always volunteer for classes deemed difficult”
The International Labor Organization (ILO) called this week for his release “without delay”, as well as that of Jacques Paris, and that they be able to benefit from “immediate consular assistance”.
Cécile is “embodied devotion” according to her relatives, a teacher “always willing for classes deemed difficult”, describes Marine, a colleague and friend. “A person with an immense joie de vivre” for Anthony, a former roommate.
Saliha, cleaning agent at Les Pierres Vives high school in Carrières-sur-Seine in the Yvelines where Cécile Kohler works, testifies to a “not haughty” teacher who “gave us, cleaning agents, as much importance as professors “.