The French President and Foreign Minister announced that the Frenchman Benjamin Brière and the French-Irish Bernard Phelan, held in the Mashhad prison in northeastern Iran, have been released.

The first, aged 37, was arrested in May 2020 and charged with “espionage”. The second, a 64-year-old travel consultant, was arrested on October 9, 2022 for “attacking national security.” Both have been released on humanitarian grounds as their health has deteriorated in recent months.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Foreign Minister Catherine Colonnade expressed France’s determination to secure the release of other French citizens held in Iran.

Four French people remain imprisoned in Iran, including Cécile Coler and Jacques Paris, who were arrested on May 7, 2022, during a tourist trip, according to their family members, and Louis Arnaud, 35, who was arrested on September 28 during his visit to Tehran. The identity of the fourth detained French citizen was not disclosed.

French-Iranian researcher Fariba Adelha, who was arrested in June 2019, has been sentenced to five years in prison for violating national security. He was released from prison on February 10, but is currently not allowed to leave Iranian territory.

The French government condemns the detention of its citizens as arbitrary and uses the term “hostages”.

Like France, other European countries and human rights groups have accused Tehran of holding dozens of foreign nationals captive as part of a hostage-taking strategy to extract concessions from the West.

Source: APE-MPE, AFP, Reuters.