'Terrified': Supporters fear for prisoners trapped in Iran
Iran is believed to hold around 20 European nationals, many of whose cases have never been published, in what some Western governments describe as a strategy of hostage-taking aimed at extracting concessions from the West.
Rights groups also accuse Iran of holding dozens of political prisoners whose sole offence has been to criticise the Islamic republic's clerical leadership.
Most are held in Evin prison, a large, heavily fortified complex notorious among activists for rights abuses that is located in a northern district of the Iranian capital. The prisoners have no means to respond to US President Donald Trump's warning that "everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!"
For Noemie Kohler, the sister of French national Cecile Kohler, who has been held along with her partner Jacques Paris since May 2022 on espionage charges their families reject, the wait is agonising.
"Since May 30, we've had no news, no sign of life from Jacques and Cecile, and the French authorities haven't been able to obtain any information either," Noemie Kohler told AFP, referring to the date of their last consular visit.
"We saw that at least two strikes took place about two kilometres from where they are being held (in Evin prison), so it's extremely close. We suspect they must have heard the explosions, but we have no idea how they are doing, we have no idea what level of information they have access to."
'Imminent danger'
Their last phone contact was on May 28, when Cecile Kohler's parents spoke to her, she said, describing the mood even then as "desperate", as they "no longer believe that they are going to be released".
"We don't know if conditions in the prison have deteriorated in connection with the situation. We're completely in the dark, and we're truly terrified," she said.
She called for the couple's "humanitarian exfiltration", warning that "they are in imminent danger of death".
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in May that 20 Europeans -- a higher number than the total of publicised cases -- are held in similar circumstances in Iran, including "teachers, academics, journalists, tourists".
He told parliament on Wednesday that France sent messages to the Iranian and Israeli authorities "alerting them to the presence of our two compatriots in Evin prison and to the need, as far as the Iranian authorities are concerned, to release them without delay to ensure their safety".
Among other Europeans known to be held in Iran is Iranian-Swedish academic Ahmadreza Djalali, who was arrested during a visit in April 2016 and sentenced to death in 2017 on charges of spying for Israel, which his family says are false.
The current conflict, which has already seen one man, Esmail Fekri, executed on Monday on charges of spying for Israel, has made Djalali's situation especially precarious.
Norway-based group Iran Human Rights has warned the lives of Djalali and eight other men convicted on similar charges are at risk.
"The risk of execution of these individuals is serious," said its director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, adding they had all been sentenced after "an unfair, non-transparent process, and based on the orders of security institutions".
'My dad is in prison'
Tehran residents have fled the city en masse.
The 2023 Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi, who was serving a prison sentence but was released from Evin last year on medical leave, said she had left Tehran.
But Mohammadi's fellow rights activist Reza Khandan, the husband of prize-winning rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, is still jailed in Evin.
Khandan, who long campaigned for his wife while she was in jail, was himself arrested in December 2024.
"My dad is in prison. Can you tell me, how can my father evacuate Tehran?" their daughter Mehraveh Khandan said in a tearful message on Instagram.
The New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran urged "all parties to fully comply with international humanitarian law and take immediate steps to safeguard civilians, including those in custody".
It published a letter by legal activist Mahvash Seydal, seen as a political prisoner by rights groups, calling on authorities to grant detainees such as herself temporary release "to protect the lives and dignity of political prisoners".
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
LeMonde
an hour ago
- LeMonde
France planning European 'initiative' to end Iran-Israel conflict, says presidency
France is planning along with European partners to suggest a negotiated solution to end the conflict between Iran and Israel, President Emmanuel Macron's office said on Wednesday, June 18. At a national security council meeting, Macron ordered Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot to draw up in the coming days "an initiative with close European partners that would propose a demanding negotiated settlement to put an end to the conflict," the presidency said in a statement, without giving details on the nature of the plan. Barrot has been in regular touch with his German and British counterparts since Israel launched massive air strikes against Iran on Friday. All three countries were involved in talks that led to a landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers to curb Tehran's nuclear activities in exchange for relief from sanctions. The United States withdrew from that accord during President Donald Trump's first term. Macron also urged Israel to end strikes on targets in Iran not linked to nuclear activities or ballistic missiles. He voiced "concern over the current escalation, with Israeli strikes increasingly hitting targets not linked to Iran's nuclear or ballistic program, and a mounting number of civilian victims in Iran and Israel," his office said. He said it was "necessary to urgently end these military operations, which pose significant threats to regional security," it added. The French president also urged the Foreign Ministry to take measures to help French citizens leave Israel or Iran if they wished to do so, the Elysée added, without providing further details.
France 24
3 hours ago
- France 24
'Argentina with Cristina': Thousands rally for convicted ex-president
In a recorded speech played for supporters amassed on Buenos Aires's Plaza de Mayo square, Kirchner said: "We will be back with more wisdom, more unity, more strength." Backers of the polarizing leftist massed on the square and spilled into surrounding streets for a demonstration called by the 72-year-old's Justicialist Party. Under the slogan "Argentina with Cristina," protesters sang and beat drums, waving national flags and banners with messages such as "The motherland is not for sale." "We came because it's an attack on democracy to outlaw someone like Cristina who the people want to vote for," Rocio Gavino, a 29-year-old public employee, told AFP. Kirchner supporters had been holding a vigil outside her home in Buenos Aires since the Supreme Court last week upheld her conviction and sentence for "fraudulent administration" while president, along with a lifelong ban on her holding public office. On Tuesday, a court ruled she could serve her sentence at home under electronic surveillance. She will be allowed limited visits, principally from family members, lawyers and doctors. In 2022, Kirchner's conviction sparked demonstrations in several cities, some of which ended in clashes with police. 'Justice. End.' Kirchner rose to prominence as one half of a political power couple with her late husband Nestor Kirchner, who preceded her as president. Both are associated with the center-left Peronist movement founded by post-war president Juan Peron. After two terms at the helm herself between 2007 and 2015, Kirchner served as vice president from 2019 to 2023 in the last center-left administration before the presidency of libertarian Javier Milei, whose austerity policies she has criticized. Milei had welcomed the court's dismissal of her appeal, writing on X: "Justice. End." Kirchner and her backers claim the case was a plot to end her career and unravel her legacy of protectionist economics and social programs. "We are here because the national government, together with the judiciary, made the decision to ban Cristina from elections," protester Federico Mochi, a Peronist youth leader, told AFP. Lara Goyburu, a political scientist from the University of Buenos Aires, told AFP that Wednesday's protest "demonstrates that the broader Peronist movement still retains some capacity for street mobilization" in a time of deep political polarization. 'Harassment' In preparation for the protests, police set up checkpoints on major roads to the capital, searching cars and buses -- much to the annoyance of citizens. Under a special protocol adopted Tuesday, they also erected barriers at the main train station and performed identity checks on anyone carrying pro-Kirchner placards or other political paraphernalia. The protocol allows police to detain any citizen without an ID document for up to 10 hours without a court order. "It's harassment that makes no sense," Daniel Catalano, a leader of the state workers' union, told Radio El Destape. Correpi, an NGO fighting police repression, said the measures amounted to the "destruction of the country's democratic freedoms." Presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni defended the operation. © 2025 AFP
Local France
3 hours ago
- Local France
What's in France's new 'simplification' law?
The simplification bill was finally passed in the Assemblée nationale on Tuesday. The headline-grabber in the bill was an amendment to scrap the Low Emissions Zones in French cities - although that might still be open to challenge. READ ALSO Is this the end of France's Crit'Air zones for drivers? But there's a lot more in this bill, which has had a complicated life - introduced by Gabriel Attal's government last year and halted first by last summer's snap election, then the collapse of Michel Barnier government, it has had hundreds of amendments added and subtracted during its lengthy parliamentary journey. The bill contains 26 main measures intended to cut bureaucracy, and simplify administration, mostly aimed at businesses. It is based on a parliamentary report from February 2024 and was presented with an action plan that includes 26 other regulatory measures. Administration and and business life Governments can use decrees and ordinances to simplify administrative procedures and cut down the number of forms and procedures that businesses have to follow. More operations will be digitised, while the bill provides several policies to improve information sharing between government departments to reduce unnecessary duplication for businesses. Advertisement The government will also have to examine how future legislation might impact small and medium-sized businesses when bills are drafted. This should avoid brouhahas similar to the proposal to introduce lower VAT limits on micro-entrepreneurs . Under the terms of the bill, by 2028 all public procurement contracts – including those from hospitals and social security organisations – will be handled through a single online platform to give businesses better access to necessary public procurement information. To make it easier to sell companies with fewer than 50 employees, the legal period for employers to inform employees has been reduced to one month and the fine for failure to provide information has been reduced. And professional bank account services will also be improved, including the ability to close an account without charge. In terms of insurance, with regard to property damage, the draft law sets limits on the timeframes for compensating individual and professional policyholders at six months maximum from the date of the claim in cases where an expert is appointed, and two months in almost all other cases. In addition, it extends the obligation for insurers to justify their decision to unilaterally terminate business insurance contracts, and gives very small businesses and SMEs the right to terminate property insurance at any time after the first anniversary of the contract. Industrial and infrastructure projects To encourage the establishment of factories or energy transition projects, exemptions from common law are provided for in various areas, such as the installation of wind turbines or relay antennas, and compensation for damage to biodiversity caused by development projects, particularly industrial projects. Advertisement An amendment by the government will make it possible to recognise the imperative reason of major public interest much earlier in the development of projects, and supplemented to allow the recognition of the public interest status for projects that have already been declared – including the controversial A69 autoroute in south-west France. The bill provides, under certain conditions, for industrial-scale data centres to be classified as projects of major national interest, to speed up planning processes. The mandate of the National Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties is also amended to take into account innovation issues in all areas of its work. Payslips Future payslips will be simplified under the remit of the bill to contain just 15 lines of information. Details about restaurant tickets and travel expenses will be available separately, but precise details have yet to be confirmed. READ ALSO : How to understand your French payslip✎ Advertisement Rural cafés The bill includes measures to make it easier to open cafés and bars in rural areas by making it simpler to get a type four alcohol licence, known as a Licence IV, which covers spirits and liquor. READ ALSO France moves to bring back village bars in bid to boost rural social lives Government mediation The bill includes measures to make complaints against the French administration system easier, with a 'generalisation' of mediation, while current deadlines in place on taking legal action against the government will be put on hold. Small businesses, micro-entrepreneurs and employees will certainly cheer several measures intended to make their daily lives easier, and the 'tell us once' policy that cuts out the duplication of required information will speed up certain processes, but at this stage it is difficult to judge how much simply life might become.
