A French court has sentenced an Iranian woman, Mahdieh Esfandiari, to one year in prison on charges of promoting terrorism. The case is being linked to possible negotiations with Iran over the release of two French citizens detained in Tehran.
The Paris criminal court on Thursday sentenced Esfandiari over anti-Israel posts on social media, including condoning Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the war in Gaza.
Prosecutors had called for a four-year prison sentence, with three years suspended. The judge agreed, but allowed Esfandiari to be released on time served, as she had spent eight months in pre-trial detention.
The 39-year-old, who had been studying in Lyon, was also permanently banned from the French territory.
Prisoner exchange
Esfandiari’s case has been linked to the detention of Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, French tourists who were arrested in Iran in May 2022 and charged with espionage.
After Esfandiari was granted parole at the end of October, Kohler and Paris, who had spent more than three years in prison, were allowed to move to the French embassy in Tehran.
They have since been living at the embassy, awaiting a possible prisoner exchange.
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In November, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that a potential exchange “had been negotiated” and that it depended on “the entire legal and judicial procedure being completed in both countries”.
The French government has neither confirmed nor denied the existence of an exchange deal. France has described Kohler and Paris as “state hostages” taken by Tehran in a bid to extract concessions.
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Any exchange could be complicated by the crackdown in Iran following anti-government protests earlier in the year, and by threats of military action by the United States over Iran’s nuclear programme.
Esfandiari’ has decided to appeal her conviction, which could also delay any exchange.
(with AFP)
