Imprisoned for 20 months, the 36-year-old tourist was sentenced to eight years and eight months in prison for “espionage”. A political trial, according to his relatives.
After learning of his sentence to eight years and eight months in prison, Benjamin Brière is in a state of shock, said his Iranian lawyer Saeid Dehghan, who announced that he would appeal over the next three weeks. Iran’s Revolutionary Justice on Tuesday found the 36-year-old French tourist guilty of “spying” and of “cooperation with states hostile to Iran“, a sentence greater than a previous one, already pronounced. According to Mand Dehghan, Benjamin Brière, who had been imprisoned in May 2020 after taking “photos of forbidden areaswith a recreational drone in a natural park, was never informed of this new accusation.
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In Paris, another of his lawyers denounced “an unfair trial“. “Benjamin Brière has obviously not – nor ever – benefited from a form of fair trial before impartial judges. He had no right to defend himself, no access to the elements of the accusation, no possibility of preparing and presenting a defense before the judges of the revolutionary tribunal.“said Me Philippe Valent in a press release, expressing alarm at the state of health of his client. “The family of Benjamin Brière appeals today to the French authorities so that measures are taken immediately to allow his repatriation.“, added Mr. Valent, pointing out that his client vigorously disputes the accusations and “urged the French authorities to put an end to this nightmare at last“.
Nuclear negotiations
The timing of this conviction probably owes nothing to chance. It fell when Iran is negotiating in Vienna against the great powers – including France – its return to the 2015 nuclear agreement in exchange for the lifting of the sanctions imposed on it by Donald Trump in 2018 when he had decided to leave this international arrangement. According to several sources, these delicate negotiations, which began almost a year ago, could lead to an agreement in the coming weeks. Iran detains a dozen foreigners or dual nationals, generally accused of espionage, which the interested parties deny.
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Even if it is not part of the nuclear dispute between Tehran and the major powers, this file of “political hostagesis interfering in the ongoing talks in Vienna. France, having played, according to Tehran, the role ofbad cop“(bad policemen), “the temptation is great on the Iranian side to send a message to Paris through this condemnation so that France calms things down by the conclusion of a nuclear agreement“Said a French source familiar with Iran. But for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this condemnation “that nothing can support, is unacceptable“.
Hunger-strike
Ten days ago, the Franco-Iranian researcher Fariba Adelkhah had already had to return to prison, while she was under house arrest in Tehran. Detained since June 2019 and sentenced in May 2020 to five years in prison for offenses against national security, she was accused of breaking the rules of her house arrest.
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Incarcerated in Valikabad prison in Mashhad in eastern Iran, Benjamin Brière has been on hunger strike since the end of December to protest against his conditions of detention. For his sister, Blandine, Benjamin Brière is a “political hostage“. “It is clear that this is a useful political trial for Iran, which sends a message to the French government“, she told AFP. “We are nothing in the face of these fights, it’s hard to tell ourselves that we are pawnsin a diplomatic game, she added.
America’s “Great Satan”
For the first time in recent days, Iran has raised the possibility of negotiating directly in Vienna with the American representatives present. For Washington, several of whose dual nationals are detained in Iran, getting them released is a priority in the context of these nuclear negotiations.
Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979, Tehran and Washington have no longer maintained diplomatic relations, and to make matters worse, last June Iran elected an ultra-conservative President Ebrahim Raissi, fiercely hostile to the “big satanAmerican. But in recent years, the Islamic Republic has carried out several exchanges of detainees with foreign countries, after very laborious negotiations.
SEE ALSO – “That’s all he has left“: Benjamin Brière, 36, held hostage in Iran, begins a hunger strike