France sues Iran at top UN court over detained citizens

Paris has filed a case against Tehran at the top UN court over two French citizens who have been held in Iran for three years, the French foreign minister said on Friday.

The announcement comes as Iranian negotiators are set to meet with their counterparts from the United Kingdom, France, and Germany in Turkey on Friday for talks on Iran's nuclear programme.

Cecile Kohler, a 40-year-old literature teacher from eastern France and her partner Jacques Paris, in his 70s, were arrested on May 7, 2022, on the last day of a tourist trip to Iran.

They have been held on spying charges, which they have vehemently denied.

In its case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), France accuses Iran "of violating its obligation to provide consular protection" to the pair, who "have been held hostage... detained in appaling conditions that amount to torture," Jean-Noel Barrot told France 2 television.

They are among a number of Europeans still held by Iran in what some European countries, including France, regard as a deliberate strategy of hostage-taking to extract concessions from the West at a time of tension over the Islamic republic's nuclear programme.

Kohler and Paris are the last known French detainees in Iran after some recent releases and are regarded as "state hostages" by the French government.

The two are jailed in extremely tough conditions, according to their families.