00:00A court in France has just ruled on the fate of an Iranian woman on trial for promoting terrorism.
00:06Madhya Esfandari was arrested last year for social media posts on the October 7th attacks and she has just been
00:12found guilty.
00:13Let's go across to Olivia Bezos standing by at the courthouse. Olivia, what are you hearing?
00:20Hi, Delano. That's right. The judge has made her decision.
00:23She's followed the recommendations of the prosecution, which is a four years sentencing, three of which are suspended.
00:31And because Madhya Esfandari has already been behind bars for eight months in a pretrial detention, she will now be
00:41exposed to Iran.
00:43The judge also said that Madhya Esfandari will never be allowed to enter the French territory again.
00:50She will be now labelled a terrorist.
00:55Now, the judge repeated the charges against her.
00:58Madhya has been accused and has now been charged for being at the heart of the Axis of Resistance,
01:06which is an online network which promoted and praised terrorist acts after the 7th of October attacks.
01:15Now, Esfandari has constantly denied writing the specific illegal posts and she has defended her posts as humanitarian work and
01:26resistance in support of the Palestinian people.
01:29And Olivia, her case is part of a larger prisoner swap deal with Paris. Tell us more.
01:37That's right, Delano. This case is incredibly important for France.
01:43It's seen as key to an international prisoner swap between France and Iran.
01:47Now, two French citizens have been held in Iran since 2022.
01:52Now, they were moved from prison to the French embassy in Tehran in November of 2025,
01:58but they have been prohibited from leaving Iranian trial and Iranian authorities have publicly stated that this trial today and
02:06the verdict given will determine the fate of those two French citizens.
02:12So, because of this verdict, because Madhya Esfandari is now going to be returning to Iran,
02:20it could very likely mean that those two French citizens will be able to return home to France.
02:26Thank you very much for that, Olivia.
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