Frenchman Benjamin Brière, detained in Iran since May 2020 and sentenced to eight years' imprisonment for espionage, was acquitted of all charges on appeal on February 15 but is still imprisoned, to the dismay of his relatives who denounce "a ludicrous situation ".
"There is not sufficient evidence to establish the crime and the Court returns a verdict of acquittal", according to the decision in Farsi of the Court of Appeal of the province of Khorasan-e-Razavi (northeast) , transmitted to AFP by the French lawyer of Mr. Brière, Me Philippe Valent.
The day after the acquittal verdict, a release order signed by the judge was published, according to Me Valent, but the Frenchman, imprisoned in Mashad prison, was "blocked in extremis at the last moment".
"He had prepared his things to go out. It's absolutely monstrous," commented Me Valent, accusing the Revolutionary Guards of having blocked the court decision.
"We demand respect by the Iranian regime for the court decisions," he added.
“We are in total incomprehension”, for her part declared to AFP Blandine Brière, the sister of the prisoner, who was able to speak to him last Sunday. "He's on an emotional elevator," she said, explaining that the family had so far not made the court ruling public in hopes the situation would unblock.
Benjamin Brière is continuing his hunger strike, which began on January 28, and "is very physically weakened", she said.
He had previously gone on a hunger strike in December 2021 to protest his conditions of detention.
The 38-year-old man was arrested in May 2020 for taking "photographs of prohibited areas" with a recreational drone in a natural park, and sentenced to eight years in prison for "espionage". He always introduced himself as a tourist.
The Court agrees with him, considering in its decision that Mr. Brière "was only a foreign tourist", that "he did not take photos or videos of sensitive places", nor send material "to groups or hostile governments".
Contacted, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not wish to comment on this new development, but said it was "concerned by the situation of Mr. Brière, detained for more than two years in difficult conditions". "France demands the immediate release of all French nationals," the Quai d'Orsay recalled.
In total, six French people are detained in Iran.
Bernard Phelan, Franco-Irish in fragile health, has been detained since October 1, a trade unionist teacher Cécile Kohler and her companion Jacques Paris were arrested in May 2022 and accused of espionage, a 35-year-old consultant Louis Arnaud was arrested September 28. Another Frenchman is detained but his identity has never been made public.
A seventh person, researcher Fariba Adelkhah, was released on February 10 after three and a half years in prison, but she does not know whether she has regained all her rights, including that of leaving Iran.
France has been denouncing for months a "diplomacy of hostages" carried out by the Iranian authorities.
Iran detains a total of at least 17 Westerners, mostly dual nationals and described by their supporters as innocent people used by Tehran as leverage for negotiations.
Relations between Tehran and the Western powers are extremely tense, due in particular to the repression of the popular uprising in Iran triggered by the death in September of a young Iranian Kurd after her arrest by the morality police. Tehran is also sanctioned for having supplied drones to Russia which uses them in its war in Ukraine.
Above all, the nuclear issue constitutes a litigation fraught with threats. Iran and the major powers have been trying for two years, in vain, to revive an international agreement concluded in 2015, which guaranteed the civilian nature of Tehran's nuclear program, accused, despite its denials, of seeking to acquire the weapon. atomic.
A new report from the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) on Tuesday showed that Iran's nuclear program was approaching bomb threshold, after detecting particles of 83.7% enriched uranium just below of the 90% necessary to produce an atomic weapon, without being able to say however whether this threshold had been reached accidentally or voluntarily.
03/02/2023 21:28:17 - Paris (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
