A French court on Thursday sentenced Iranian national Mahdieh Esfandiari to one year in prison for justifying terrorism in a case linked to a possible prisoner swap with two French citizens held in Iran, APA reports.
Esfandiari, 39, was also handed a permanent ban from French territory, according to an AFP journalist present at the court.
Esfandiari’s lawyer said she would be filing an appeal.
Observers see her as a potential bargaining chip in negotiations with Tehran for the release of French nationals Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, who are still waiting to leave Iran.
She was arrested in France last year over comments she is accused of having made on social media, including on Palestinian militant group Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Esfandiari was sentenced to four years, of which three are suspended, the judge said, citing “the nature of the acts and their seriousness.”
“The court also issues a permanent ban from the national territory,” the judge added.
The outcome of the trial is eagerly awaited by the relatives of Kohler and Paris as tensions rage over Iran’s nuclear program, with the United States threatening military action.
Arrested in Iran in May 2022, Kohler and Paris were freed in November after more than three years in prison on espionage charges their families vehemently denied.
They were taken by French diplomats to France’s mission in Tehran, where they live now.
“They are well. They are safe,” foreign ministry spokesman Pascal Confavreux told AFP on Wednesday.
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