Iranian national Mahdieh Esfandiari has returned to Iran after being detained in France for more than a year, state television reported, in what appears to be part of a detainee exchange between Tehran and Paris. Iranian media described Esfandiari as a rights activist.
Esfandiari, a University of Lyon graduate who had lived in France since 2018 and worked as a translator, was arrested in February last year on charges that French authorities said amounted to promoting “terrorism”. She was later sentenced to one year in prison over online comments that expressed support for Palestine and for the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza. She was released on bail in October.
“I think it’s clear for everyone that there is no freedom of speech, at least not in France where I was. The court’s ruling was very unjust,” Esfandiari told Iranian state television after her return.
Her repatriation came one week after two French citizens, Cécile Kohler, 41, and Jacques Paris, 72, arrived back in France after being held in Iran for more than three years. Kohler and Paris were detained by Iranian authorities in May 2022 and were freed in November last year after espionage charges that their families have denied. The two were taken to France’s mission in Tehran, remained under house arrest until their full release on April 7, and were then driven to neighboring Azerbaijan before flying to Paris.
President Emmanuel Macron’s office said the pair’s release followed a long-term effort and that diplomatic talks had accelerated in recent weeks amid heightened regional tensions linked to the US-Israel conflict with Iran. While French authorities did not explicitly confirm a direct swap, Iran’s state news agency IRNA earlier reported that Tehran had reached an agreement with Paris to free the French detainees in exchange for Esfandiari.
