Overview
- Paris judges imposed a four-year term with three years suspended, amounting to an effective one-year custodial sentence, and ordered a permanent ban from French territory for Mahdieh Esfandiari.
- Her lawyer called the ruling severe and said an appeal will be filed.
- Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says a prisoner exchange has been negotiated and awaits completion of judicial procedures in both countries, while France has neither confirmed nor denied any deal.
- French nationals Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, arrested in Iran in May 2022 and freed from prison in November, remain at France’s mission in Tehran as they await possible resolution.
- The case centers on social media posts that defended Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack; prosecutors had sought four years with three suspended, and Esfandiari previously spent about eight months in pre-trial detention.