On Monday, Blandine Brier, the sister of Benjamin Brier, a Frenchman detained in Iran for a year, expressed her "shock" following Tehran's announcement that he would be tried on charges of "espionage." She reiterated that her brother is "an ordinary French tourist who fell into a trap" of a politically charged case.
Blandine Brier told the French news agency AFP, "We are under shock. When we see such serious accusations directed against him, the situation takes on dimensions we cannot control, and it is horrifying." Tehran confirmed on Sunday that the public prosecutor decided to prosecute Brier, who is held in Mashhad (northeast Iran), on charges of "espionage" and "propaganda against the political system" of the Islamic Republic.
His Iranian lawyer, Saeed Dehghan, stated that his client is accused of espionage for taking "photos of restricted areas" with a drone in a natural park in Iran. However, his sister Blandine insists that he was detained while crossing Iran as a tourist during a lengthy camping trip he started in 2018.
The "propaganda" charge stems from "his question (via social media) asking why the hijab is 'mandatory' in the Islamic Republic, while it is 'optional' in other Muslim countries," according to his lawyer. Blandine Brier stated, "We understand that the stakes are elsewhere, that the matter is entirely beyond us. He has fallen into a trap. Benjamin is not a spy; he is an ordinary French citizen, a tourist who found himself in the midst of an absurd case," urging that her brother should not be "a pawn in negotiations."
Blandine Brier managed to speak to her brother four times over the past year, the last being on Sunday, May 23. She said, "He was as well as can be expected. There are 13 detainees in a dormitory, with no privacy. He is learning Persian and working with leather, which helps him endure, even though he understands the predicament he is in." She added, "He has undergone several interrogations, but he has not been mistreated, that's what he told us," clarifying that "all his communications are recorded, translated, analyzed, so we are of course cautious."
She noted that Benjamin Brier is entitled to a consular visit every two months and can contact the consul whenever he wishes, "but the French authorities have no actual information to provide him or us." Blandine expressed, "We are angry; the outlook is completely unclear. We had remained silent for months to comply with what was requested of us, but that is no longer possible; we are going in circles. We ask for help from the French authorities, for someone to tell us: We care about this issue, we will get him out of this mess."
Last week, Blandine Brier addressed an open letter to President Emmanuel Macron, "pleading" for him to work towards her brother's release, who has been imprisoned "without basis." Iran is holding more than ten Westerners, most of whom have dual nationality, which NGOs condemn as a hostage-taking policy to extract concessions from Western countries. Their families assert they are victims of a political game in which they have no part.
Following the U.S. unilateral withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal in 2018 and the reimposition of severe sanctions on Tehran, there has been an increase in detentions of foreigners in Iran, especially those with dual nationalities, who are often accused of espionage or threatening national security. Negotiations have been ongoing since April in Vienna aimed at reviving the deal, with the goal of securing a return of the United States to it and Iran’s return to its core commitments under it, which it gradually retreated from around a year after the U.S. withdrawal.
During the negotiations, Iran stated it is still willing to conduct a prisoner exchange. In recent years, Iranian authorities have released some detainees in steps that coincided with the release of Iranians held in foreign countries, some of whom were serving prison sentences or awaiting trial, or were wanted for extradition by the United States.
