ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Another two French nationals have been detained in Iran, France’s foreign minister said on Saturday, as the death toll from the countrywide protests against the Iranian regime climb to at least 326.
Colonna confirmed to French publication Le Parisien that the number of nationals detained in Iran has gone up from five to seven. Last month, the minister had confirmed that five French citizens were being held by Tehran.
“It is more important than ever to remind Iran of its international obligations. If its objective is blackmail, it will not work,” Colonna stated, calling Iran’s actions “hostage diplomacy.”
“We demand their immediate release, access to consular protection,” the minister said. “My Iranian counterpart, with whom I had a long and difficult conversation, has committed to respecting this right of access.”
It was not immediately clear what charges were brought against the two whose identities were not revealed.
Last month, Iranian state television broadcast what it called “confessions” by two French nationals, Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, five months after their arrest. Iran’s judiciary accused them of “association and collusion with the aim of undermining the security of the country,” charges France has rejected as being “baseless.”
Benjamin Briere, who was detained in 2020, was sentenced in January to over eight years in prison for espionage charges.
France advised its citizens to leave Iran “as soon as possible” last month as the country continues to be engulfed in protests sparked by the death of a young of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini while in police custody in September.
Iran Human Rights on Saturday raised the latest death toll of the protests to 326 people, including 43 children.
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