Two years ! The Islamic Republic of Iran stole two years of the lives of Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris. Like Louis Arnaud and Olivier – whose name the family does not wish to disclose – they are “state hostages”, to use the expression of the French authorities. The latter cannot be blamed for not having been able to obtain a release which depends solely on the goodwill of the Iranian authorities. There is no doubt that the Quai d’Orsay is doing everything it can to get our compatriots imprisoned without valid reason out of Iranian hell.
On the political and communication level, the new Minister of Foreign Affairs Stéphane Séjourné would however benefit from showing a little more determination. It also happens that the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron did not find the time, during his visit to Strasbourg on April 26, to receive the family of Cécile Kohler as the request had been made at the Élysée. But the fact that the Minister of Foreign Affairs does not respond to lawyers worrying about the fate of the hostages and that he does not pay attention to them on April 14, at 8 p.m. on France 2, is worrying. The previous minister Catherine Colonna and the former Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne had been otherwise attentive and active in their time. Because media coverage, an expression of national solidarity, allows families to hold on.
Seven months ago, the attacks by Hamas against Israel, supported by Iran, opened the door to two options: a rapid release or, on the contrary, the oblivion of our compatriots in the jails of Evin prison. This second hypothesis is being confirmed. She is the worst for all those who wait and hope for the return of Cécile, Jacques, Louis and Olivier. The Kohler family has no prospects, except to live perhaps for a long time, with their daughter, their sister, their friend imprisoned for no reason by a regime of terror which displays revolting inhumanity. Added to the pain of the hostages is that of the families, worthy but so bruised by so much injustice mixed with cruelty.
