Six months after the arrest in Iran of two French tourists – Cécile Kohler and her companion Jacques Paris, both imprisoned since – the family of the Alsatian teacher announced, on November 22, the creation of a support committee, during a press briefing organized in Strasbourg.
With our correspondent in Strasbourg, Wyloen Munhoz-Boillot
” Tomorrow, it will be 200 days that our daughter, our sister, our friend, Cécile, has been arbitrarily detained in Iran. “It is by this terrible count and moved to tears, that Noémie, the sister of Cécile Kohler, addressed the press. Until now, the relatives of this Frenchwoman detained in Iran had kept silent, “ the time to acknowledge the shock and not to hinder the diplomatic work “. But at the beginning of October, the broadcast by Tehran of a video presented as “confessions” by Cécile Kohler who claims to work for the French secret services, prompted her family to react.
” This video was a shock of incredible violence for us. She is set up from scratch and the words she is made to say are rude, absurd and contrary to who she is deeply and to the values she has always defended. “, declared Noémie Kohler during a press conference in Strasbourg, on November 22.
“Freedom for Cécile”
By addressing the press and creating the “Liberté pour Cécile” support committee, Cécile Kohler’s family wants to defend her image and prevent it from falling into oblivion. But above all give him the strength to hold on: “ What we particularly fear is solitary confinement. We are afraid of the psychological state in which she must be. And we imagine the worst because we don’t know anything, we have no information “, continues Cécile’s sister.
According to her relatives, the 38-year-old teacher has so far been deprived of an independent lawyer and consular access.
Tuesday evening, November 22, the spokesperson for the Iranian judicial authority announced that “the two French spies arrested”, in reference to Cécile Kohler and her companionwere still in custody and that their case was at the final decision stage.