Mahdieh Esfandiari, an Iranian national, was sentenced on Thursday by the Paris Criminal Court to one year of firm imprisonment along with a permanent ban from French territory for glorification of terrorism. Her lawyer has announced that she will appeal the decision.
The 39-year-old, born in Iran and living in France since 2018, was convicted of multiple offenses, including apology for terrorism, direct online provocation to commit a terrorist act, public online insult based on origin, ethnicity, nation, race, or religion, and criminal association. The court sentenced her to four years in prison, including one year to be served.
French authorities accused Esfandiari of contributing content in 2023 and 2024 to accounts linked to the so-called “Axis of Resistance” on platforms such as Telegram, X, Twitch, YouTube, and the website Égalité et Réconciliation, associated with French far-right polemicist Alain Soral.
According to the prosecution, some of these publications praised the October 7, 2023 attack carried out by Hamas in Israel, incited acts of terrorism, and included insults directed at the Jewish community.
Esfandiari left the courthouse free pending further legal steps, as the one-year firm sentence remains subject to appeal. Her case has also drawn attention because of the broader diplomatic context between France and Iran.
Her lawyer, Me Nabil Boudi, criticized the severity of the sentence and suggested that diplomatic considerations may have influenced the ruling. He stated that the defense would appeal in the hope of obtaining a decision based strictly on legal and factual grounds.
Iranian authorities have reportedly expressed interest in a possible exchange involving Esfandiari and two French nationals, Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris. The two French citizens were arrested in Iran in May 2022, later sentenced to heavy prison terms including for espionage, and released in November 2025 with a travel ban. They are currently under house assignment at the French embassy in Tehran.
