Benjamin Brière, a former prisoner in Iran, called on the government on Saturday to act to free the four French people still imprisoned in this country.
Some 200 people gathered at Place de la République in Paris not to forget Cécile Kohler, 39, and her companion Jacques Paris detained since May 2022, the consultant Louis Arnaud detained since September 2022 as well as Olivier arrested in October 2022 whose name has never been revealed.
It was today!
The support committees of #CécileKohler, #LouisArnaud #JacquesParis brought together numerous supports and the supportive presence of the ex-hostages #FaribaAdelkhah #BernardPhelan #OlivierVandecasteele #BenjaminBriere ♥️✊🏻 Thank you to all 🙏🏻 #Iran #FreeThemAll pic. twitter.com/DX1nxt016v
— Freedom for Cécile (@FreeCecile_) March 23, 2024
" Move on "
“Ten months ago, I was released with this feeling of almost total relief but tinged with guilt,” testified Benjamin Brière, 38, whose detention lasted three years.
“The word hostage is and always will be the most appropriate.
Cécile is hostage, Louis is hostage, Olivier is hostage, Jacques is hostage,” he stressed.
“I was a hostage.
No offense to the torturers, executioners and butchers of the Iranian regime.”
The list of crimes of the Iranian regime “seems endless for 45 minutes, condemning them is not enough,” he said.
“I have to remain cordial but please, starting with the French government, move, fucking move!
“, he said.
Questions for Emmanuel Macron
Jean-Michel Arnaud, Louis' father, addressed questions to President Emmanuel Macron: "Mr. President Macron, how can we understand that France, homeland of Voltaire, Rousseau and Montesquieu, Nation of Human Rights, receives as host country of the Olympic Games a delegation from the Islamic Republic of Iran?
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“Mr. President Macron, how can we express our distress to you and insistently ask you to free our children?
It’s an emergency,” he said.
His wife Sylvie called on Iranian President Ebrahim Raïssi.
“Our children have done nothing that warrants their detention in your prisons,” she said.
“In no case did they offend or threaten the security of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Difficult detention conditions
Cécile Kohler's sister, Noémie, recalled the difficult conditions in which her sister was detained.
She is located in Ward 209, a high-security section of Tehran's Evin Prison, "often described as a prison within a prison."
She also deplored her remaining in this neighborhood even though “the investigation was completed a long time ago”.
“Keeping Cécile in section 209 is not only destructive, it is illegal,” she said.
The Islamic Republic of Iran detains more than ten Western nationals and is accused by their supporters and NGOs of using them as a bargaining chip in state-to-state negotiations.