Iran sentences a Franco-Irish citizen to more than six years in prison for espionage

PARIS, 8 March. (DPA/EP) –

An Iranian court has sentenced 64-year-old French-Irish citizen Bernard Phelan to six and a half years in prison for espionage despite pressure from Paris and Dublin to release him due to his poor health.

Phelan, who has been incarcerated since his arrest in October 2022, has consistently denied the charges against him. Iran accuses him of having “provided information to an enemy country.”

Phelan was arrested for allegedly taking photographs — which he later reportedly sent to The Guardian newspaper — of Iranian security forces after a mosque in the area burned down.

The 64-year-old man, who works for an Iranian tourism company, was carrying a French passport at the time of his arrest in Mashhad, north-eastern Iran. He was held in solitary confinement for two weeks, after which he was sent to Vakilabad prison in that city.

As reported by his sister, Caroline Massé-Phelan, he began a hunger strike on January 1 in protest. The family has alerted that her state of health has worsened considerably. Phelan has heart problems, kidney failure, and is at risk of having a stroke.

The Irish and French foreign ministries confirmed Phelan’s detention in mid-January, expressing concern about his state of health, as well as the circumstances of his detention, vowing that they would do everything possible to persuade the Iranian authorities of his release.