(MENAFN) Iran has released two French citizens, Cécile Kohler, 41, and her partner Jacques Paris, 72, who had been held for more than three years, French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed. The pair were freed from Evin prison, with France’s foreign ministry later reporting they were "safe" at the embassy in Tehran "ahead of their final release."

Macron welcomed the development, saying: "I welcome this first step. The dialogue continues to allow for their return to France as quickly as possible." The couple, arrested in May 2022 during a tourist visit, were reportedly the last French nationals detained in Iran. Last month, Iranian authorities convicted them of spying for both France and Israel and handed down long prison sentences.

Kohler and Paris’ Paris-based legal team described their release as the end of "their arbitrary detention which lasted 1,277 days," with families maintaining their innocence.

Their release comes shortly after Iranian and French officials were finalising a swap agreement involving an Iranian woman, Mahdieh Esfandiari, who had been held in France on terrorism-related charges. Esfandiari was conditionally released last month, paving the way for the exchange.

The case is part of a wider pattern of European nationals being detained in Iran, which France has criticised as state hostage-taking, a claim Tehran denies.

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