Frenchman Benjamin Brière, detained in Iran for more than a year and a half for "espionage", has started a hunger strike to protest against his conditions of detention, his family told AFP on Monday (December 27th).

The 36-year-old man, who has always presented himself as a tourist and denies espionage charges, was arrested in May 2020 for taking "photographs of no-go areas" with a recreational drone in a natural park in Iran, according to his lawyer.

"Benjamin started the hunger strike on December 25 because he was not allowed to call us for the Christmas holidays, but also to denounce the mistreatment he has suffered for twenty months," said his sister Blandine to AFP.

Detained in the prison of Valikabad, in Mashhad, in the north-east of Iran, "he sees no evolution in his situation", she lamented.

>> To read: “Total opacity” around the case of Benjamin Brière, French detained in Iran

The Quai d'Orsay claims to have "regular contacts"

According to Blandine Brière, he was arrested in May 2020 while crossing Iran as a tourist, during a long trip in a converted van that began in 2018.

Last May, his Iranian lawyer indicated that Benjamin Brière would be tried for "espionage" and "propaganda" against the political system of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Espionage carries the death penalty in this country.

"He is being taken hostage for no reason. It's completely illegal, we don't know anything. Benjamin needs more French diplomacy," added his sister.

The French Foreign Ministry said Monday to follow his case with "the greatest attention" and to have "regular contacts" with him under consular protection.

"He benefited from another consular visit on Tuesday, December 21 and was contacted by our embassy today (Monday)," added the deputy spokesperson of the Quai d'Orsay during an electronic press briefing.

A hostage-taking policy

Iran retains more than a dozen Western passport holders, most of them binational, which NGOs condemn as a hostage-taking policy designed to obtain concessions from foreign powers.

Benjamin Brière is the only known Westerner detained in Iran who does not have an Iranian passport.

In recent years, the Islamic Republic has carried out several exchanges of detainees with foreign countries.

Franco-Iranian researcher Fariba Adelkhah has been detained since June 2019 and was sentenced in May 2020 to five years in prison for attacks on national security.

She has been under house arrest since October 2020.

Her companion Roland Marchal, also a researcher, had been detained with her before being released in March 2020, after Paris freed Iranian engineer Jallal Rohollahnejad, whose extradition the United States was demanding for violating American sanctions against him. 'Iran.

With AFP

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