ByREUTERS
Updated:

French nationals Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris are "free and on their way to France, after three and a half years of detention in Iran," President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday in a post on social media platform X/Twitter.

Lawmakers greeted the announcement with a standing ovation at the National Assembly.

The two French nationals were initially released from Iran's Evin Prison in November 2025 after having been imprisoned there for over three years on espionage charges, according to Macron.

Supporters, relatives, Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo and officials hold a banner in support of Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, two French citizens held in Iran, during a rally to mark their three-year detention and to demand their release, at Place de la Nation in Paris, France, May 7, 2025.
Supporters, relatives, Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo and officials hold a banner in support of Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, two French citizens held in Iran, during a rally to mark their three-year detention and to demand their release, at Place de la Nation in Paris, France, May 7, 2025. (credit: REUTERS/Abdul Saboor)

Released in exchange for Iranian student

The release of the two French nationals was arranged in exchange for France's release of an Iranian national, according to Iran's IRNA state news agency.

Macron had noted the exchange in November 2025, describing the Iranian national as a student who had been conditionally released in October 2025.