Iranian national Mahdieh Esfandiari walks with her lawyers Antoine Pastor and Nabil Boudi before her trial at a Paris courthouse on January 13, 2026. STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP
An Iranian went on trial in France on Tuesday, January 13, accused of promoting "terrorism" on social media in a case linked to a possible prisoner swap with two French citizens held by the Islamic Republic for over three-and-a-half years. Mahdieh Esfandiari, a 39-year-old Iranian, was arrested in France in February 2025 on charges of promoting and inciting "terrorism" on social media over comments she is said to have made, including on Palestinian militant group Hamas attacking Israel on October 7, 2023, according to French authorities.
Esfandiari was released in October pending her trial, whose date was scheduled long before the current protests erupted in Iran against the Iranian authorities. "I'm here today to finally speak about the facts, as there have been a lot of wrong stories about me in the media, and a lot of lies," she said as she entered the courtroom for the four-day trial, in which several groups battling antisemitism are plaintiffs.
French citizens Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris were arrested in Iran in May 2022, but they were freed in November after more than three years in prison on espionage charges their families vehemently denied. They were immediately taken by French diplomats to France's mission in Tehran, but are still waiting to leave Iran.
