France jails Iranian national for glorifying terrorism

French judges sentenced Iranian national Mahdieh Esfandiari to one year in prison on Thursday for “glorifying terrorism” and ordered a permanent ban from French territory, according to Euronews and AFP. The case is now being discussed in Paris and Tehran as a possible component of a prisoner swap involving two French citizens, Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, who were freed from Iranian prison in November but remain barred from leaving the country.

Esfandiari, 39, has lived in France since 2018. Euronews reports prosecutors had sought a four-year sentence with three years suspended, arguing that an immediate return to custody was unnecessary because she had already spent eight months in pre-trial detention. Her lawyer said she will appeal.

The verdict lands inside a sanctions-heavy relationship where normal transactions are harder to execute. When banking channels are restricted and formal diplomacy is politically costly, states reach for assets they can physically control: detained people, travel bans, and criminal files. Iran has long treated foreign detainees as leverage, and the Kohler–Paris case—arrested in May 2022 and later sentenced on espionage-related charges—has become part of that pattern. Even after their release, the exit ban keeps the leverage alive.

France’s side of the exchange market is different but not immune to the same logic. Prosecutors built a case around online speech and alleged incitement, plus accusations of conspiracy and insults targeting origin or religion, Euronews writes. In court, Esfandiari also made statements interpreted as endorsing the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attacks in southern Israel. A conviction and a formal sentence create a clean legal “unit” that can be traded once appeals are exhausted, with the state able to say it followed procedure.

Euronews notes Iranian authorities have indicated that once the French legal process is completed they want their citizen exchanged for Kohler and Paris. That sequencing matters: appeals can delay any handover, while Tehran’s exit ban can be extended indefinitely without the optics of a new arrest.

Esfandiari’s sentence is one year and a lifetime ban from France. Kohler and Paris are free but still cannot board a plane out of Iran.