Macron says couple jailed in Iran for years "free and on their way back to France"

The French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday that a couple who were jailed in Iran for years were "free and on their way back to France."

"Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris are free and on their way back to France after three and a half years of detention in Iran. This is a relief for all of us and, of course, for their families," Macron said in a social media post. He thanked Oman's government "for their mediation efforts."

Kohler and Paris were held in Iran in prison conditions that French officials had likened to torture and on charges that the French government always said were without foundation.

"Iran practices a deliberate policy of state hostages," the French Foreign Ministry said last year as the pair remained in detention. "All French nationals who find themselves there expose themselves to a risk of arrest and arbitrary detention, including tourists, for the sole reason of having French nationality."