Jailed in Iran, French 'spy' again goes on hunger strike against torture, open hangings, filthy conditions

Briere’s France-based attorney Philippe Valent described the spying allegations against him as “fiction” and the trial as “a comedy produced by the Revolutionary Guards,” the part of the Iranian security forces in charge of maintaining the government Paris: A French national Benjamin Briere, who is jailed in Iran on allegations of spying is on a hunger strike for the second time since his arrest in May 2020, his family and attorney stated on Monday. His sister Blandine Briere issued a statement in which she claimed, “It’s the only weapon he has.” She claimed that he stopped eating on January 28. Briere’s France-based attorney Philippe Valent described the spying allegations against him as “fiction” and the trial as “a comedy produced by the Revolutionary Guards,” the part of the Iranian security forces in charge of maintaining the government. The attorney argued that Iran ought to be held liable for the threat to Briere’s “physical and mental wellbeing.” At the request of his family, who worried for his life, another detainee in Iran, 64-year-old Franco-Irish citizen Bernard Phelan, who has been held since October 1, last month abandoned a hunger strike that included refusing water.