A French diplomat on Tuesday visited two French nationals detained in Iran, Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, the foreign minister said, after their families demanded proof that they were alive after Israeli strikes.
"We obtained a visit today from our chargé d'affaires in Iran," Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told lawmakers.
A French foreign ministry spokeswoman confirmed the visit had taken place earlier in the day.
But the ministry did not specify where the visit occurred, amid uncertainty over the couple's whereabouts.
The fate of Kohler and Paris had been unknown since Israel targeted Tehran's Evin prison in an air strike last week, before a US-proposed ceasefire between the Middle East foes came into force.
Iran's judiciary said the Israeli strike on the prison had killed at least 79 people.
It has also said the Iranian prison authority transferred inmates out of Evin prison without specifying their number or identifying them.
Several women prisoners have been transferred to Qarchak prison for women outside Tehran, which has a notorious reputation for its conditions.
On Friday, the families of Kohler and Paris demanded "proof of life," while a lawyer denounced their "forced disappearance."
Kohler, 40, and Paris, her 72-year-old partner, have been held in Iran since May 2022 on espionage charges their families reject.
Iran is believed to hold around 20 European nationals, many of whose cases have never been publicized, in what some Western governments, including France, describe as a strategy of hostage-taking aimed at extracting concessions from the West.
Three Europeans, who have not been identified, have also been arrested in the wake of the current conflict, two of whom are accused of spying for Israel, according to the authorities.
With AFP
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