Frenchman Benjamin Brière, detained since May 2020 in Mashhad prison in northeastern Iran, wrote to Iranian President Ebrahim Raïsi to request his release, we learned from his sister.
The letter, handwritten and written in Farsi, was sent to the prison guards on Monday morning, told AFP Blandine Brière, who also published a copy in French of this letter.
"This freedom that should never have been taken from me"
“
I appeal to your dignity, in order to obtain my freedom which should have been returned to me a month ago after my acquittal, this same freedom which should never have been torn from me
”, writes Benjamin Brière.
He also appeals to the president's "
sense of honor
" by calling on him to "
show by deeds, rather than words, the independence of the Iranian judicial system
".
Acquitted of all charges
Benjamin Brière, 38, 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.
In his letter, Benjamin Brière explains that he is all the more “
unjustly
” imprisoned since he has been acquitted “
of all the charges brought and that a release order from the Revolutionary Court of Appeal of Mashhad was signed on 15 last February
.
He believes that the Iranian President is fully aware of his innocence, as well as of his acquittal and of his hunger strike which began on January 28, which he will not renounce "until" his freedom and all his
personal
effects will not have been returned.
“
Time and time again I have read and heard Iranian government officials claim that the judiciary in Iran is totally independent.
That no arrest or trial is arbitrary
,” he continues.
Read alsoWho are the six French detainees in Iran?
mental torture
Benjamin Brière believes that his case “
is proof to the contrary
”.
He denounces suffering not only an "
unfounded
" incarceration but also the harshness of his detention accompanied by "
psychological violence
" and "
mental torture
" which were "
once again
" amplified.
After his acquittal, according to Blandine Brière, the detainee was asked to prepare his bag but was taken back to the cell one meter from the exit.