PARIS, FRANCE – Iran on Friday released two French citizens jailed in separate cases, France said, urging Tehran to release several others still detained in the Islamic republic.
Bernard Phelan, who also holds Irish nationality, and Benjamin Briere were freed from their prison in the northeastern city of Mashhad and are “on their way to France”, Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said.
President Emmanuel Macron added on Twitter: “Free, finally. Benjamin Briere and Bernard Phelan can reunite with their loved ones. It’s a relief”.
The pair were among some two dozen foreigners jailed in Iran who campaigners see as hostages held in a deliberate strategy by Tehran to extract concessions from the West.
Phelan, 64, a Paris-based travel consultant, was arrested in October in Mashhad and has been held ever since.
In April, he was jailed for six and a half years on national security charges strongly rejected by his family.
With Iran rocked by anti-regime protests since September, Phelan was accused of taking photos of a burned mosque and police officers, and sending images to a British newspaper, the family said.
Phelan’s family had said his health deteriorated considerably in detention. Phelan went on a dry hunger strike in January to protest his detention but stopped the action at the request of his family, who feared he would die.
Regain full freedom
“The last seven months have been a very difficult ordeal for Bernard and for his family and I am pleased and relieved that this is now at an end,” said Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin.
Briere, 37, was first detained while travelling in Iran in May 2020 and later sentenced to eight years in prison for espionage.
He was then acquitted by an appeals court but remained in prison in a situation deemed “incomprehensible” by his family.
He had been accused of taking pictures of no-go area with a drone, but his lawyers said the appeals court rejected this and said he was merely a tourist.
Held like Phelan in the prison of Vakilabad in Mashhad, Briere also went on hunger strikes to protest his conditions.
Four more French citizens, described previously as “hostages” by the French foreign ministry, are still being held in prison by Iran.
Colonna said she had spoken earlier Friday to her Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir Abdollahian and made clear “France’s determination to ensure that the other French citizens still detained in Iran also rapidly regain their full freedom.”
The Iranian foreign ministry also said the two had spoken by telephone about the release of Briere and Phelan, which it described as a “humanitarian action”.
Increased tensions
Macron added: “We will continue to work for the return of our compatriots still detained in Iran.”
Cecile Kohler, a teacher, and her partner Jacques Paris were arrested in May last year and remain in prison accused of espionage charges their family deny.
Louis Arnaud, described by his family as an innocent traveler, was arrested in September. Another French citizen is confirmed to be held by Paris but has never been named.
Meanwhile, French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah was released from prison in February but appears still unable to leave the country.
The holding of foreigners by Tehran has increased tensions with the West at a time when Tehran is also under scrutiny for it crackdown on the protest movement that erupted in September.
Negotiations between Iran and the West on reviving the 2015 deal on its nuclear program are meanwhile frozen.
Activists are also alarmed by a surge in the number of executions by Iran and Tehran on May 6 hanged Swedish-Iranian dissident Habib Chaab on terrorism charges.
German citizen Jamshid Sharmahd and Iranian-Swedish national Ahmadreza Djalali also face execution after being sentenced to death in trials denounced as a sham by their families.