The pair had been under house arrest at the French embassy in Tehran ever since being freed from more than three years in prison in November
2-MIN READ2-MIN ListenAgence France-PressePublished: 7:21pm, 8 Apr 2026Updated: 7:28pm, 8 Apr 2026President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday welcomed two French nationals who returned to Paris after spending almost four years detained in Iran on espionage charges, with the French leader hailing “the end of a terrible ordeal”.Cecile Kohler, 41, and Jacques Paris, 72, arrived on a commercial flight, landing at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris shortly before 9am. They were met on the tarmac by foreign ministry officials.
Macron greeted the pair in the gardens of the Elysee Palace. They appeared in good spirits, and smiled as the French leader embraced them.
“For us, this is a fresh start. We’re not broken,” Paris said.
“We kept our hopes up right to the end,” Kohler said.
The pair had been under house arrest at the French embassy in Tehran ever since being freed from more than three years in prison in November, with their fate even more uncertain after US-Israeli strikes on Iran started on February 28.
