An Iranian appeals court docket has upheld an eight-year jail sentence in opposition to a Frenchman convicted on spying costs, his Paris-based lawyer stated Tuesday.
Benjamin Briere was arrested in Might 2020 after taking footage in a nationwide park with a leisure drone. His legal professionals and household have accused Iran of holding him as a “hostage”.
The lawyer, Philippe Valent, stated Briere’s case was being “instrumentalised” by the Iranian authorities.
“It’s stunning and dramatic,” he informed AFP, including that the decision coincided with the resumption of negotiations between Tehran and western powers on Iran’s nuclear programme.
Briere, 36, who was convicted in January for spying and propaganda in opposition to Iran’s Islamic system, had appealed the sentence.
“We ask the French, American and British authorities to make the liberation of hostages a pre-condition for the resumption of negotiations,” Valent stated.
