Benjamin Brière, a Frenchman detained in Iran for more than a year and a half, appeared Thursday before a revolutionary court in Mashhad (northeast) to answer charges of espionage and propaganda against the regime, and a decision is expected on Saturday, her sister Blandine Brière told AFP.
Read alsoIran: Frenchman Benjamin Brière tried on Thursday
"
We have very little information, all we know is that the hearing took place and that a decision will be made on Saturday
," Benjamin Brière told AFP, adding that the Iranian lawyer of his brother and an interpreter were present during the appearance.
"
We have no details as to the course of this hearing (on Thursday), nor to any requisitions, for or against Benjamin Brière, or the possibility given to him to present his defense
", declared to AFP his French lawyer in Paris, Philippe Valent.
Espionage punishable by death in Iran
“
It seems that the deliberation can be made from this Saturday, or sometime next week. We therefore remain awaiting better information, but also in the hope of an end to this ordeal and to finally see Benjamin Brière released
, ”he added. “
The trial was not open to the public but there were cameras and photographers
,” human rights lawyer Saeid Dehghan said in a tweet. According to the network of exiled activists HRNA, Benjamin Brière was still on hunger strike, which he started at the end of December to protest against his conditions of detention. Arrested in Iran in May 2020, this 36-year-old Frenchman is being prosecuted for espionage and propaganda against the Iranian regime, which he denies.
Benjamin Brière, who has always presented himself as a tourist, was arrested 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). Espionage is punishable by death in Iran. Asked by AFP, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicated that its services were following the situation of the French "
with the greatest attention
" and that the embassy maintained "
regular contact
" with him. Benjamin Brière had two consular visits on December 21 and January 17, according to the Quai.
Iran is holding more than a dozen Western passport holders, mostly dual nationals, in what NGOs condemn as a hostage-taking policy designed to extract concessions from foreign powers.
Iran and several countries (France, United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, China, plus the United States indirectly) relaunched talks in November to save the 2015 agreement (“
JCPOA
”), supposed to prevent Tehran to acquire atomic weapons, a particularly burning issue that is scrutinized throughout the region.
Benjamin Brière is the only known Westerner detained in Iran who does not have an Iranian passport.
Read alsoDetained in Iran, a Frenchman begins a hunger strike
Franco-Iranian researcher Fariba Adelkhah has been detained since June 2019 and was sentenced in May 2020 to five years in prison for breaches of national security.
In house arrest since October 2020, she was reincarcerated in mid-January, accused of having violated the rules of her house arrest.
Her companion Roland Marchal, also a researcher, had been detained with her before being released in March 2020, after Paris freed the Iranian engineer Jallal Rohollahnejad, whose extradition the United States was seeking for violating American sanctions against the 'Iran.
In recent years, the Islamic Republic has carried out several exchanges of detainees with foreign countries.
