Iran airs video with 2 French citizens it claims were spying

By The Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran has published video footage showing two French citizens purportedly confessing to acting on behalf of a French security service. The scenes were published amid ongoing protests roiling the country that Tehran has sought to describe as a foreign plot instead of local anger over the death of a 22-year-old detained by the country’s morality police. The video released by the state-run IRNA news agency on Thursday showed two French citizens, Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, who are unionists associated with France’s National Federation of Education, Culture and Vocational Training. The clips resembled other videos of confessions Tehran has forced prisoners to make. In 2020, one report suggested authorities over the last decade had aired at least 355 coerced confessions.