Frenchman gets 8 years in prison in Iran; denies spy charges

PARIS (AP) — A Frenchman detained in Iran and starvation hanging to protest his remedy has been sentenced to eight years in jail on what his lawyer insisted Tuesday are trumped up espionage and propaganda costs.

Benjamin Brière, 36, was arrested in Could 2020 after taking photos in a desert space the place images is prohibited and asking questions on social media about Iran’s compulsory Islamic scarf for ladies.

Paris-based lawyer Philippe Valent mentioned an Iranian revolutionary courtroom has sentenced Brière to eight years in jail for espionage and eight months of imprisonment for anti-government propaganda. Underneath Iranian regulation, the longer half is utilized in observe.

The lawyer mentioned the costs are solely with out basis.

Brière started a starvation strike on Dec. 25 to protest mistreatment within the jail of the northeastern metropolis of Mashhad the place he's being detained.

His sister, Blandine Brière, instructed The Related Press “we're disheartened at such an enormous sentence and in addition very offended to see that is really a political trial.“

“This is sort of a large mountain in entrance of us, we really feel helpless,” she added, saying her brother is caught in “a diplomatic sport” performed by Iranian authorities.

“Right now we'd like the (French) authorities to take motion and assist us, assist Benjamin, and do no matter is required to get him out,“ she mentioned. “He's getting weaker, he's very drained bodily and mentally.”

Brière’s Iranian lawyer, Saeed Dehghan, instructed the AP that his shopper remains to be on starvation strike but is “in good spirits.”

Dehghan mentioned the courtroom listening to occurred Thursday in Mashhad. Brière was charged for “cooperation with a overseas hostile nation towards Islamic Republic of Iran,” he mentioned.

That is the primary time that an Iranian courtroom thought of France a “hostile nation.” Thus far, the U.S. and Israel had been on the record in comparable circumstances.

France, alongside different world powers, is in negotiations with Iran in Vienna to revive a 2015 nuclear deal.

Brière’s conviction comes after researcher Fariba Adelkhah, an anthropologist with twin French-Iranian citizenship, was despatched again to jail earlier this month.

Adelkhah has been detained in Iran since June 2019 and was given a five-year sentence for “gathering and collusion” towards Iran’s safety. She had been below home arrest since October 2020.

French authorities condemned the Jan. 12 resolution to jail Adelkhah in a press release final week from Overseas Ministry spokeswoman Anne-Claire-Legendre. “We demand her quick launch,” she mentioned, including that her conviction “will not be based mostly on any credible proof; it's purely political and arbitrary.”

Rights teams accuse hard-liners in Iran’s safety companies of utilizing overseas detainees as bargaining chips for cash or affect in negotiations with the West. Tehran denies it, however there have been prisoner exchanges up to now.

In March 2020, Iran and France swapped French researcher Roland Marchal for Iranian engineer Jalal Ruhollahnejad.

___

Nasser Karimi contributed to this report from Tehran, Iran.