A Frenchman detained in Iran and hunger striking to protest his treatment has been sentenced to 8 years in prison on what his lawyer insisted Tuesday are trumped up espionage and propaganda charges.
Benjamin Brière, 36, was arrested in May 2020 after taking pictures in a desert area where photography is prohibited and asking questions on social media about Iran’s obligatory Islamic headscarf for women.
Paris-based lawyer Philippe Valent said an Iranian revolutionary court has sentenced Brière to 8 years in jail for espionage and 8 months of imprisonment for anti-government propaganda. Under the Iranian law, the longer part is applicable in practice.
The lawyer said the charges are entirely without foundation.
Brière began a hunger strike on Dec. 25 to protest mistreatment in the prison of the northeastern city of Mashahd where he is being detained.
His sister, Blandine Brière, told The Associated Press “we are disheartened at such huge sentence and also very angry to see this is actually a political trial."
“This is like a huge mountain in front of us, we feel helpless,” she added, saying her brother is caught in “a diplomatic game” played by Iranian authorities.
“Today we need the (French) government to take action and help us, help Benjamin and do whatever is needed to get him out," she said. “He is getting weaker, he is very tired physically and mentally. This is something that is very worrisome for us.”
Brière's Iranian lawyer, Saeed Dehghan, told the AP that his client is still on a hunger strike yet is “in good spirits.”
Dehghan said the court hearing happened Thursday in Mashhad. Brière was charged for "cooperation with a foreign hostile nation against Islamic Republic of Iran,” he said.
This is the first time that an Iranian court considers France a “hostile nation.” So far the U.S. and Israel were on the list in similar cases.
France, alongside other world powers, is negotiations with Iran in Vienna to revive 2015 nuclear deal.
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Nasser Karimi contributed from Tehran, Iran.
