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June 28, 2022 \u2013 Countries negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program, including France, the U.K., and the U.S., as well as European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, should condemn the Iranian judiciary\u2019s blatantly unlawful prison sentence against French tourist Benjamin Bri\u00e8re, said the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).<\/p>\n
\u201cBri\u00e8re was detained by Iran\u2019s security establishment to be added as yet another pawn in the government\u2019s arsenal of human bargaining chips,\u201d said CHRI Executive Director Hadi Ghaemi.<\/p>\n
\u201cIndividuals continue to be nabbed and used to extract political and economic concessions from other countries,\u201d said Ghaemi. \u201cSilence in the face of this blatant extortion reflects an inability to enact meaningful consequences and will only result in more hostages,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
CHRI calls on all heads of state, especially those negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program, as well as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Human Rights Council, and the relevant UN special procedures to loudly condemn the Iranian government\u2019s practice of blatant hostage-taking.<\/p>\n
Arrested for Flying Remote Camera, Blocked from Accessing Counsel<\/p>\n
An Iranian appeals court upheld a prison sentence against Bri\u00e8re of eight years and eight months on June 28, 2022, on the charges of espionage in collaboration with France (which was referred to by the court as an \u201cenemy government\u201d) and carrying out propaganda against the Islamic Republic, one of Bri\u00e8re\u2019s lawyers, Saeid Dehghan, told CHRI.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt should be noted that never before has a court in Iran referred to France as an \u2018enemy government,\u2019\u201d said Dehghan.<\/p>\n
The propaganda charge included \u201cexpressing sympathy\u201d for the victims of a passenger plane shot down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in January 2020, added Dehghan.<\/p>\n
Bri\u00e8re was also accused of having \u201csuspicious communications\u201d with individuals opposed to the state and using his skills and equipment as a computer specialist.<\/p>\n
Dehghan added that Bri\u00e8re is also facing charges for having sexual relations with Iranian women, but no date has been set for the trial.<\/p>\n
Bri\u00e8re, who is in Vakilabad Prison in the city of Mashhad, was blocked from accessing counsel for the first nine months of detainment after being arrested in May 2020 while flying a helicam, a remote-controlled mini-helicopter with a camera, near Iran\u2019s border with Turkmenistan.<\/p>\n
Referred to as a travel blogger by media outlets, Bri\u00e8re documented his travels through photography including long-range self-portraits.<\/p>\n
France\u2019s Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs called the initial sentence against Bri\u00e8re \u201cgroundless\u201d and \u201cunacceptable\u201d in January 2020.<\/p>\n
At Least 18 Foreign and Dual Nationals Currently Detained in Iran Without Due Process<\/p>\n
Bri\u00e8re is among at least 18 foreign and dual nationals currently detained in Iran without being allowed access to internationally recognized standards of due process.<\/p>\n
The actual number of dual and foreign nationals held in Iran is likely higher, but the names of individuals are often withheld by the detainees\u2019 families, who are pressured by the Iranian authorities to keep their cases secret, and falsely promised a quicker release if they do so.<\/p>\n
Iranian-born French academic Fariba Adelkhah, as well as French citizens Cecile Kohler (a teachers\u2019 union official) and her husband Jacques Paris, are among a group of French citizens currently detained in Iran.<\/p>\n
Adelkhah, a Sciences Po university research director who is serving a five-year prison sentence in Tehran, has been in state custody since 2019 and was reimprisoned in January 2020 after being released on a brief furlough while her French passport was withheld to prevent her from leaving the country.<\/p>\n
Charges against Kohler and Paris have not been publicized by Iranian authorities, who have tried to implicate them in fomenting teachers\u2019 rights protests in Iran even though the protests have been occurring throughout the country for years, well before the French couple visited.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the international community refuses to hold Iran accountable for its hostage-taking through a united front of countries, more foreign citizens will be nabbed by the Iranian government\u2019s security apparatus,\u201d said Ghaemi. \u201cFailing to act now endangers everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
June 28, 2022 \u2013 Countries negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program, including France, the U.K., and the U.S., as well as European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, should<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[541],"class_list":["post-1827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-benjamin-briere"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1827"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1828,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1827\/revisions\/1828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}