DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An Iranian court sentenced two French citizens to a combined 63 years in prison on espionage and national security charges, the country’s judiciary said Tuesday, likely further straining relations between Tehran and Paris.

The semiofficial Fars news agency named the pair as Cecile Kohler and Chuck Paris. The two have been held since 2022 on charges France has denounced as “unjustified and unfounded.” The judiciary’s Mizan news agency also reported Tuesday’s sentencing but without sharing the names of the two French nationals.

Their possible prison sentences, which can be appealed to Iran’s Supreme Court within 20 days, come as Tehran pressures French authorities to release an Iranian national.

Iran’s Revolutionary Court in Tehran, which holds closed-door hearings that often see defendants unable to access the evidence allegedly gathered against them, issued the preliminary verdict, Mizan reported. The court accused the two of working for French intelligence and cooperating with Israel.

The court sentenced the two defendants to over 30 years in prison apiece, Mizan reported. Typically, convicts only serve the longest single term among their charges

Kohler and Paris were arrested after meeting with protesting Iranian teachers and taking part in an anti-government rally, Iranian media reported at the time. France identified the two as a teachers’ union official and her partner on vacation in Iran. Concerns for their safety grew after the 12-day Iran-Israel war in June that saw Israel bomb a notorious prison in Tehran.

In September, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said his nation was close to making a prisoner swap deal with France. Mahdieh Esfandiari, a translator living in the French city of Lyon since 2018, was arrested in February on a terror-related charge for alleged posts on Telegram about the Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 that triggered the war in Gaza, according to French media reports.

Last week, Iran released a teenage French-German cyclist who disappeared in June while riding across the country, the French government said. Iran has not acknowledged Lennart Monterlos’ release.

Iran is known for holding dual nationals and Westerners and using them as bargaining chips in diplomatic negotiations.

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