Zoroastrian religious figure arrested in Iran

The two left Iran on Tuesday and were received in France on Wednesday, after traveling via Azerbaijan, with President Emmanuel Macron saying their return marked the end of a “terrible ordeal.”

Kohler, 41, and Paris, 72, were arrested in May 2022 during a tourist trip to Iran and later accused of espionage and other national-security offenses, charges France said were unfounded.

They were held in Tehran’s Evin prison before being moved in November 2025 to the French embassy in Tehran under a form of house arrest that still left them unable to leave the country.

Macron’s office said the two left Iran by road “without any special coordination with the US and Israeli forces” operating in the region.

Their release appears to have come out of a broader understanding between Paris and Tehran, though both sides have publicly avoided describing it as a straightforward swap.

Iran’s official IRNA news agency said the two were freed under an understanding that France would in turn release Mahdieh Esfandiari, an Iranian student living in Lyon, and that France had earlier withdrawn its complaint against Iran at the International Court of Justice.

Reuters reported that Esfandiari, convicted in France in late February for glorifying terrorism in social media posts, had already been released after serving nearly a year and was appealing the conviction.

Le Monde, citing diplomatic and expert sources, reported that Esfandiari’s case had become tied in practice to the fate of the French pair: after she was released under judicial supervision in October 2025, Iran allowed Kohler and Paris to leave prison for the French embassy, but their full departure from Iran came only after Esfandiari’s house arrest in France was lifted.

There is also evidence of other concessions already on the table. The ICJ case France had filed against Iran over the detention of Kohler and Paris was formally removed from the court’s list in September 2025 at France’s request.

Reuters reported that French officials declined to spell out the full terms that secured the pair’s departure, while Le Monde said no explicit bargaining was publicly acknowledged by Paris even though the sequence of events pointed to a negotiated quid pro quo.

The timing has fueled debate in France over whether geopolitics also played a role.

Reuters wrote that the release came as Paris sought to distance itself from the US-Israeli war effort, while Le Monde quoted analysts who described the move as a calculated Iranian gesture toward France at a moment when Macron had criticized Washington’s approach and France had resisted force-based measures around the Strait of Hormuz.

Reuters reported that the release came as Paris was trying to put some distance between itself and the US-Israeli war effort, while Le Monde cited analysts who saw it as a calculated Iranian signal to France at a time when Macron had openly criticized Washington’s approach and Paris had opposed using force around the Strait of Hormuz.

French officials deny softening their position toward Tehran. But the case fits a broader pattern in which Iran has been accused by Western governments and rights advocates of using detained foreigners or dual nationals as leverage in disputes with other states.

France itself has repeatedly described Kohler and Paris as “state hostages,” a phrase that reflects that view, even as Iran rejects the accusation.

Information obtained by Iran International shows that Hatami, who was executed on April 2, remains unburied as authorities continue to withhold his body.

Hatami was one of the defendants in a case linked to a fire at the Mahmoud Kaveh Basij base on Namjoo Street in eastern Tehran during the January protests.

Others in the same case included Mohammadamin Biglari, Shahin Vahedparast Kalur, Abolfazl Salehi Siavashani and Ali Fahim, all of whom were sentenced to death.

Biglari and Vahedparast were executed on April 5, while Fahim’s execution was carried out on Monday, April 6.

Informed sources told Iran International that Hatami’s body has not been released because his name appeared on a website linked to the Mojahedin-e Khalgh organization, an allegation his family strongly rejects.

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  Iran executes two men as protest-related hangings continue

Sources familiar with the case said Hatami was an industrial design student at the University of Tehran and was fluent in three languages.

A source with knowledge of the events of January 8 said the case involved seven defendants, none of whom had any role in starting the fire.

According to the source, Hatami and the others entered the Basij base with around 50 other people only after the fire had already broken out.

Minutes later, another fire began. Many managed to escape, but seven people, including Hatami, were unable to flee.

They went to the rooftop, where they were detained by Basij forces and severely beaten, the source said.

Judicial authorities later accused the defendants of trying to gain access to the armory.

After their arrest, the detainees were subjected to severe interrogations and then transferred to Ghezel Hesar prison.

They were denied in-person visits throughout their detention and were allowed only phone calls.

Their trial was presided over by Judge Abolghasem Salavati, and they were denied access to lawyers of their own choosing.

Death sentences were issued on February 7.

Sources told Iran International that the confessions in the case were extracted under pressure and coercion, and that the judicial process ended in executions carried out without the defendants and their families having full knowledge of the proceedings.

In the same case, 28-year-old Shahin Vahedparast was also executed on April 5, and his body, too, has still not been returned to his family, according to informed sources.

Those sources said Vahedparast’s wife was four months pregnant at the time of his execution.

Relatives said he had dreamed of opening a restaurant with her.

The strikes were spread across 20 provinces, according to the Washington-based monitoring group Human Rights Activists News Agency, and represented the highest rate of attacks recorded in the past 10 days.

Among those killed were four children and two women, HRANA said, adding that the figures remain preliminary and could rise as more information emerges.

In total, the group documented at least 573 individual strikes across 215 separate incidents during the past day, a scale of bombardment that analysts say reflects a widening focus on strategic sectors of Iran’s economy.

Many of the attacks targeted infrastructure linked to the country’s core industries, including elements of Iran’s energy sector, HRANA reported.

The latest wave of strikes comes as President Trump has warned that the United States could launch sweeping new attacks on Iranian infrastructure if Tehran does not agree to negotiations by Tuesday evening.

In a statement Monday, the White House said Iran would be “sent back to the stone ages tomorrow night if they fail to engage in a serious way” with diplomatic efforts.

The war, now in its sixth week, has already inflicted heavy losses across the region.

Iranian authorities and monitoring groups estimate that more than 2,000 people have been killed inside Iran since the conflict began. Israeli officials say at least 26 people have been killed there, while missile and drone attacks launched by Iran have also caused dozens of casualties in the Persian Gulf countries.

With negotiations uncertain and attacks intensifying on both sides, Tuesday is shaping up as one of the most consequential moments in the conflict since it began more than five weeks ago.

The latest executions took place on Sunday, when authorities hanged Mohammadamin Biglari and Shahin Vahedparast, accused of attempting to storm a military site during the January protests and trying to reach an armory, according to the judiciary’s news outlet Mizan.

State media said the two were part of a group that entered a military facility in Tehran, damaged the site and attempted to access its weapons storage area.

Authorities also accused the group of planning to enter other military and security locations, including police stations and Basij bases, to obtain weapons.

The executions followed the hanging on Saturday of two other prisoners, Abolhassan Montazer and Vahid Bani-Amerian.

Iran’s judiciary described the pair as “terrorists,” saying they had been convicted of “armed rebellion,” membership in the opposition Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) and plotting attacks using rocket launchers.

Both men had been sentenced to death in December 2024 by Tehran’s Revolutionary Court.

Earlier in the week, authorities executed Amirhossein Hatami, an 18-year-old protest detainee convicted in connection with a fire at a Basij base in Tehran during the January protests.

Hatami was among a group of detainees held responsible for events at the “185 Mahmoud Kaveh” Basij base on January 8.

Families of those arrested told Iran International that Hatami and others had been pushed into the building by unidentified armed individuals during the protests and became trapped inside when the base caught fire.

Human rights groups say the executions form part of a broader rise in capital punishment tied to protest-related cases.

Amnesty International recently warned that at least 11 men detained during the January protests are at risk of imminent execution.

The organization said detainees had been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment in custody and convicted in trials it described as grossly unfair and based on forced confessions.

Rights groups have called for an immediate halt to executions linked to the protests, warning that the rapid pace of death sentences could deepen the crackdown on dissent.

Mizan identified the two as Mohammadamin Biglari and Shahin Vahedparast and said their death sentences had been upheld by the Supreme Court.

State media accused the two men of taking part in the protests in January 2026, entering a military site in Tehran, helping damage and set fire to the facility, and trying to reach its weapons storage area.

The report also said authorities accused a group involved in the case of trying to enter military and security sites, including police stations, Basij bases and other restricted locations, with the aim of stealing weapons and military equipment.

The two were among four defendants in the same case who had faced execution, according to Amnesty International.

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  Two more political prisoners executed in Iran

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  Iran executes protest detainee over Basij base fire case

On Saturday, Iran executed two men, Abolhassan Montazer and Vahid Bani-Amerian, over charges including “armed rebellion,” membership in the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) opposition group and plotting attacks using rocket launchers.

Last week, Iran executed 18-year-old Amirhossein Hatami, who had been convicted in the same case linked to the nationwide anti-government protests that the Islamic Republic repressed in what became its broadest crackdown to date.

In a recent report, Amnesty said 11 men were at risk of imminent execution over participation in the protests. The rights group said they had been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment in detention before being convicted in grossly unfair trials based on forced confessions.