The Frenchman Benjamin Brière, detained for more than a year and a half in Iran, was sentenced to eight years in prison for "espionage" by an Iranian revolutionary court, announced Tuesday January 25 his Iranian lawyer, Saïd Dehghan, denouncing " a charade of trial".

Benjamin Brière, 36, was also sentenced to an additional eight months in prison for "propaganda" against the Iranian regime, said his lawyer, Me Philippe Valent, in a statement sent to AFP.

Arrested in May 2020, Benjamin Brière has always presented himself as a tourist and denies the accusations of espionage.

He had been arrested for having taken "photographs of prohibited areas" with a recreational drone in a natural park in Iran.

He had started an end-of-December strike to protest against his conditions of detention in Valikabad prison, in Mashhad (north-east). 

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