Incarcerated without having seen a judge, Benjamin Brière is accused “spying” for filming landscapes with a leisure drone.
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The nightmare of French Benjamin Brière, detained in the Iranian jails for a year and a half, is far from over. This 36-year-old man has been on hunger strike since December 25 in Vakil Abad Prison in Machhad (Northeast). The reason: the bad conditions of his detention, including his deprivation of the right to call his loved ones for Christmas celebrations, confirmed his family and his Iranian lawyer, Saïd Dehghan.
“What the Revolutionary Tribunal of Machhad is expected to study the political charges against Benjamin Brière that has been held in custody for 570 days?”, Can we read on the TWITTER wire of the lawyer , referring to the fact that French still has not passed a judge.
The latter was arrested in May 2020 while he was traveling through Iran aboard a landscaped van. The charges against him show “espionage” and “propaganda against the political system of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He was criticized for him for taking photographs of “prohibited zones” in Iran with a leisure drone. He has always denied his accusations and his lawyer maintains that the French drone was a simple device, widely used in Iran to photograph the landscapes or even at ceremonies, such as marriages.
Accusations “incomprehensible” The Quai d’Orsay has, for its part, judged “incomprehensible” the accusations selected against French. Monday, December 27 Still, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced to follow his case with “the greatest attention” and have “regular contacts” with him for consular protection. According to French diplomacy, the last consular visit dates from December 21 and the prisoner was contacted by the Embassy on Monday.“I had Benjamin on the phone ten days ago, explains his sister, Blandine Brière, attached by phone. He begins to sink, because the conditions of his detention are always the same and he suffers from psychological torture: Overnight, he is deprived of phone calls. Same for his access to books. He is in a prison where no one speaks his tongue and where there are death sentences who disappear overnight. He can not Not give me the details on the phone, because the conversations are recorded and then translated. His hunger strike is his last resort to protest the violation of his rights. “
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“I had Benjamin on the phone ten days ago, explains his sister, Blandine Brière, attached by phone. He begins to sink, because the conditions of his detention are always the same and he suffers from psychological torture: Overnight, he is deprived of phone calls. Same for his access to books. He is in a prison where no one speaks his tongue and where there are death sentences who disappear overnight. He can not Not give me the details on the phone, because the conversations are recorded and then translated. His hunger strike is his last resort to protest the violation of his rights. “
You have 38.41% of this article to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.