Iranian regime accused French tourist of spying

Iranian authorities accused a French tourist of spying and spreading anti-government propaganda, the lawyer denounced Sunday.

Benjamin Berier was arrested in May last year after taking photos in a desert area where photography is prohibited. and questioning the norm that obliges all women to cover their heads in Iranian Islamist society.

Under Iranian law, espionage is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and the publication of propaganda is punished from three months to one year.

The case against Berier was brought by the prosecutor’s office in the northeastern town of Mashahd. It is not known when the trial will start.

Human rights groups accuse radical sections of Iranian security agencies of artificially detain foreigners in order to use them as a bargaining chip with the West. The Iranian government denies it, but this kind of prisoner swap has taken place in the past. For example, last year Iran and France traded the French researcher Roland Marchal by an Iranian engineer Jalal Ruhollahnejad.

Berier he is the last Westerner detained in Iran on questionable espionage charges.

In March, the British Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe She appeared in a Tehran court, also accused of publishing propaganda, after serving five months in prison. His fate remains unknown because Iran has not delivered a verdict, and she was unable to return to London.

Cases occur when Iran increases pressure on the United States and European powers, including France and Great Britain, to ease the much-needed sanctions. They reimposed Severe sanctions against Iran after US withdrawal from Iran nuclear deal con world powers in 2018.

Since, President Joe Biden has joined talks to restore the deal. But Washington and Tehran are at an impasse, each insisting that the other act first to reactivate the deal.

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