Lhe Frenchman Benjamin Brière, detained for more than a year and a half in Iran, was sentenced to eight years in prison for “espionage” by an Iranian revolutionary court, his lawyer announced on Tuesday January 25, 2022, denouncing “a masquerade of trial “. Benjamin Brière, 36, was also sentenced to an additional eight months in prison for “propaganda” against the Iranian regime, said his lawyer, Maître Philippe Valent, in a press release sent to Agence France-Presse.
This condemnation, which nothing can support, is unacceptable”, reacted Tuesday evening the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, specifying that Benjamin Brière had decided to appeal this decision.
Benjamin Brière, who has always presented himself as a tourist, was arrested in May 2020 for having taken “photographs of prohibited areas” with a recreational drone in a natural park in Iran. He is being held in Valikabad prison, in Mashhad (North-East) and has been on hunger strike since the end of December to protest against his conditions of detention. He had appeared last Thursday in court in Mashhad.
“Political Hostage”
“Benjamin Brière obviously never benefited from a form of fair trial before impartial judges. As a reminder, he did not benefit from any right to defend himself, from any access to the elements of the accusation, any possibility of preparing and presenting a defense before the judges of the revolutionary court”, added Mr.e Valent, alarmed at his client’s state of health. “Benjamin Brière’s family today calls on the French authorities to take immediate action to allow his repatriation,” he added.
Blandine Brière, the Frenchman’s sister, considered for her part that her brother was a “political hostage”. “It is clear that this is a useful political trial for Iran, which sends a message to the French government,” she said. “We are nothing in the face of this, we feel like pawns in a diplomatic game”, she added, while Tehran and the major powers are engaged in extremely delicate negotiations to relaunch the agreement on the 2015 nuclear attack, supposed to prevent Iran from acquiring atomic weapons, and torpedoed by former US President Donald Trump in 2018.