The investigation procedure targeting Frenchman Benjamin Brière, detained in Iran since May 2020 and charged in particular with "espionage", is coming to an end and an order of dismissal or dismissal is expected shortly.
“The preliminary investigation […] is over.
The defense is awaiting the order within five days, "said Saïd Dehghan by telephone, who introduces himself as" one of Benjamin Brière's lawyers ".
He also defends the Franco-Iranian researcher Fariba Adelkhah, under house arrest in Tehran.
Me Saïd Dehghan, who described the accusations against his client as "contradictory and false", indicated that in the event of referral, "the case [would] go to the revolutionary court" of Mashhad, Iran's second city, in the North-East of the country.
His identity revealed on Monday
The lawyer had revealed Monday on Twitter the identity of Benjamin Brière, whose Paris had confirmed at the end of February - without naming him - the detention in Iran since May 2020. Born in June 1985, the Frenchman is charged with espionage and "propaganda" against the »political system of the Islamic Republic.
Espionage is punishable by death in Iran, and propaganda against the system from three months to one year in prison.
Benjamin Brière is being held in "the Vakilabad prison in Machhad [where] the detainees do not speak French and rarely English", told AFP Me Dehghan, "Benjamin is very lonely because of that".
"A grotesque story", according to his sister
According to the lawyer, "this French tourist" is accused of espionage for "photographs of prohibited areas" taken with a drone, and he is accused of propaganda for having "asked the question (on social networks) of why the Islamic veil is
compulsory
in the Islamic Republic (of Iran) but
optional
in other Muslim countries ”.
Quoted Tuesday in two French media, Blandine Brière, sister of the detainee, considered that her brother was the victim of "unfounded" accusations.
Asked by FranceInfo, she assures that her brother would have gone on a trip in 2018 in a campervan, first in Scandinavia, then in Iran after a long trip from France.
“It was her dream: to go in her van to meet people, landscapes…”, she says.
“We are very close, we called each other very regularly.
He told me about his adventures.
And overnight, nothing.
I knew that if I had no news for 48 hours, I had to worry, ”she says.
“There is still a tourist who was going to take some pretty pictures.
And we find ourselves in a grotesque story, ”she said.
The drone?
"A simple gadget at 100 euros"
As for the drone, "we're talking about a simple gadget, a 100 euro drone that you can find anywhere in the store to take travel photos!"
Nothing more, ”she argues in an interview with Le Point magazine.
Detained in a cell with "a dozen other prisoners", "Benjamin holds up physically even if it is very, very hard", continues his sister in Le Point, claiming to have had it "twice in the past. phone in the last two months ”.
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“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is accompanying us in this story […].
The consul is doing his job and we have regular news from Benjamin.
But ten months after his arrest, we can no longer be satisfied with that.
We need to know that France will do everything to get him out of there, ”she concludes.
"I fear that any delay in the follow-up of the case will deviate the file from its normal course", declares in a cryptic manner Me Dehghan.
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