Frenchman jailed in Iran ends hunger strike in prison
February 2, 2022, 4:17 am

Frenchman jailed in Iran ends hunger strike in prison

Jailed French tourist in Iran Benjamin Briere/Facebook page

The Arab News reported, according to the AFP, the family of a Frenchman jailed in Iran said, Benjamin Briere who is convicted on spying charges he denies has ended a hunger strike in prison after refusing food for more than a month.

Briere, 36, was sentenced by an Iranian court last week to eight years in jail.

He had begun the hunger strike at Christmas to protest the conditions of his detainment and the lack of any progress in his legal proceedings after he was arrested in 2020.

His sister Blandine told AFP: “He has stopped his hunger strike, I asked him to, given how it was developing. And he knows he needs strength to continue his struggle."

Briere, who is being held at the Vakilabad jail in the eastern city of Mashhad, was arrested in May 2020, after taking pictures in a national park with a recreational drone.

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The French foreign ministry has described the verdict as “unacceptable,” saying Briere was a “tourist.”

Briere’s Iranian lawyer Saeid Dehghan wrote on Twitter that his hunger strike had lasted 35 days and that he had lost 13 kilos.

He is one of more than a dozen Western citizens held in Iran described as hostages by activists, who say they are innocent of any crime and detained by the powerful Revolutionary Guards to extract concessions from the West.

The verdict against Briere came as Iran and world powers are seeking to reach an agreement at talks in Vienna on reviving a 2015 deal to curb the Iranian nuclear program in exchange for a lifting of sanctions.

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Blandine Briere said her brother was keeping up hope after his situation — along with that of French academic Fariba Adelkhah, who is also detained in Iran — was raised by President Emmanuel Macron in telephone talks with his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi on Saturday.

The French presidency said that Macron urged the “immediate release” of both French citizens.

Blandine Briere said: “It gives (us) hope, but we will continue to fight until he is on a plane for France."

Source: arabnews

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Upon arriving to participate in the summit of the European Political Community, which includes around forty heads of state in Budapest, he said, "I look forward to sitting with the elected U.S. president and seeing how we will collectively ensure we meet challenges, including the threats from Russia and North Korea." He also noted that the strengthening of ties between Russia and North Korea poses a threat to the United States as well, according to reports from Agence France-Presse.

Before Trump's victory, Rutte expressed confidence that a united Washington would remain part of the defensive alliance, even if Trump became the 47th president of the United States. In an interview with German public broadcaster ZDF last Monday night, he stated that both Republicans and Democrats understand that NATO serves not only the security of Europe but also that of America. He added that both candidates are aware that the security of the United States is closely tied to NATO.

On Wednesday, NATO congratulated Trump on his victory but did not address the Ukrainian issue.

It is noteworthy that the relationship between the elected U.S. president and the defense alliance was not the best during his first term in the White House. Trump criticized NATO member states multiple times and even hinted at withdrawing from the alliance unless they increased their financial contributions.

Additionally, the issue of the Russian-Ukrainian war is one of the matters that complicate relations between the two sides, especially since Trump has repeatedly stated that he can end this ongoing conflict, which began in 2022, quickly. He implied that he had a peace plan between Kyiv and Moscow, while his vice president, JD Vance, revealed aspects of that plan, which stipulated Ukraine's commitment not to join NATO, thereby sending reassuring signals to the Russians.

Furthermore, many NATO member states in Europe fear that Trump might halt military aid to Ukraine after he previously criticized the U.S. for pouring funds into supporting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.