Overview
- Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris landed in Paris and were met by the foreign ministry’s crisis team before reuniting with family and seeing President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée.
- France publicly thanked Oman for brokering the outcome, and the foreign minister said their release did not involve concessions in French foreign policy.
- After a conditional release from Evin Prison in November 2025 that barred travel, the couple stayed at the French ambassador’s residence in Tehran, then departed in a diplomatic convoy to Azerbaijan and flew on to Paris.
- The pair described inhumane treatment in Evin, citing isolation, blindfolds whenever they left their cells, bans on reading and writing, bright lights that disrupted sleep, and frequent interrogations.
- French reporting links their return to the case of Iranian national Mahdieh Esfandiari, whose house arrest was lifted after the couple got back, suggesting they may have been held as leverage.