‘Political hostage-taking’: Esfandiari vows legal battle against France after release from illegal detention

Mahdieh Esfandiari, an Iranian woman who was illegally detained by the French government for 237 days, has announced legal action against Paris over its “political hostage-taking.”

Esfandiari told reporters in Kermanshah province that she spent 235 of those days in solitary confinement, where she endured intense pressure over her commitment to the Islamic dress code and her refusal to abandon her principles.

“We are in the process of filing an official complaint against the French government to prove this political hostage-taking, and to proclaim the righteousness of the Axis of Resistance and the victimhood of the children of Islamic Iran in international forums,” Esfandiari said.

‘Revealing the truth was my crime’

Esfandiari, a media activist who ran a news channel dedicated to covering the Axis of Resistance, including Iran, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, said her only crime was telling the truth.

“Western media present news in a highly biased and distorted manner. After the October 7 operation, they framed the story as if it started that day, while the roots go back decades of Zionist occupation,” she said.

She explained that her channel translated and published firsthand news from the resistance front to challenge false Western narratives.

“But this very act of truth-telling displeased the claimants of freedom,” she said.

237 days of captivity, struggle for hijab

Esfandiari described the harsh conditions of her detention.

“I was held captive for 237 days, 235 of which were in solitary confinement. Throughout this period, one of my main challenges was maintaining my hijab,” she said.

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“For us, hijab is not just a religious duty; it is a political symbol of the revolutionary Muslim woman. I was severely harassed over this. After much effort and consultations with lawyers, I was only allowed, to a very limited extent, to wear a headscarf during court appearances or meetings with the ambassador.”

She noted that even French Muslim citizens in prison dare not demand this basic right.

Double standards

Esfandiari sharply criticized the French judiciary for its political bias.

“It is utterly absurd that, according to the initial ruling, my name was to be placed on Europe’s terrorist list, yet a criminal like Netanyahu, who has an international arrest warrant, freely uses French airspace without being arrested,” she said.

“Today, from the West’s perspective, Iran’s IRGC is considered ‘terrorist,’ but the criminal Zionist army, stained with the blood of thousands of children, is not labeled as terrorist.”

‘I was a political hostage’

She revealed that France kept her under house arrest on the pretext of “threats to French security,” despite its own laws requiring her release pending appeal.

“The truth was exposed when my release coincided with the release of two French spies. This shows that I was effectively a hostage, not a defendant,” she said.

Her complaint against the French government seeks to expose what she calls systematic political hostage-taking by Western states.

Esfandiari’s detention and the subsequent swap are part of a broader pattern of French and European hostility toward Iran and the Resistance Axis.

France has consistently supported Israeli policies, provided political cover for US-Israeli aggression, and labeled Iran’s IRGC a “terrorist organization” while ignoring Israeli war crimes.

European nations, including France, have imposed sanctions on Iran while maintaining close ties with Israel.

Iranian officials have repeatedly condemned European “double standards” for ignoring Israeli atrocities in Gaza and Lebanon while targeting Iranian media figures and institutions.

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