A French tourist is sentenced for espionage in Iran

Benjamin Briere. That is the name of the French tourist who has been sentenced in Iran to 8 years in prison for espionage.

After more than a year and a half in detention, Brière was accused of “espionage and propaganda” against Iran, after being arrested in May 2020 for taking “photographs of prohibited areas” with a recreational drone in a natural park, near the border between Iran and Turkmenistan.

Now Benjamin’s family is seeking the help of the French authorities to secure his repatriation. Blandine Briere, the Frenchman’s sister, said her brother was a “political hostage” and that it is “a useful political trial for Iran, which sends a message to the French government.”

“It is evident that Benjamin Brière did not benefit – nor has he ever benefited – from a 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 court,” declared his lawyer Philip Valent, who expressed alarm at the state of his client’s health, who went on a hunger strike to protest his imprisonment.

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