Iran Sentences French National Amid EU Mediation In Nuclear Talks
Iran confirmed a long prison sentence for French national Benjamin Briere on allegations of spying, as it began nuclear talks mediated by the European Union.
Iran confirmed a long prison sentence for French national Benjamin Briere on allegations of spying, as it began nuclear talks mediated by the European Union.
His Iranian Paris-based lawyer, Saied Dehghan, said Tuesday that an Iranian appeals court has upheld the sentence on charges of “spying” and “propaganda against the regime” and Briere was sentenced to eight years and eight months in prison.
The appeals court said in its verdict that Brière is "an agent in the service of an enemy state," and mentioned “sympathy with the victims of the Ukrainian plane” [Flight 752 downed by Iran]”, “IT expertise", and "possession of more than one hard drive and mobile phone” as reasons behind the decision.
The airliner referred to in the verdict was shot down by two air-defense missiles fired by the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) on January 8, 2020, as it took off from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport killing all 176 people onboard.
Briere’s other lawyer Philippe Valent, said his case was being "instrumentalized" by the Iranian authorities. Accusing Iran of holding him as a "hostage." He added, "It's shocking and dramatic."
“It is unacceptable that Benjamin Briere remains a hostage to negotiations on the part of a regime that persists in its desire to arbitrarily detain a French citizen and use him as a bargaining chip,” he added, urging “the French, American and British authorities to make the liberation of hostages a pre-condition for the resumption of [nuclear] negotiations.”
"Benjamin Brière has obviously not - nor has he ever - been given a fair trial before impartial judges. He was not given any right to defend himself, no access to the prosecution's case, no opportunity to prepare and present a defense before the judges of the Revolutionary Court," Valent said in a statement, adding that he would appeal. "The family of Benjamin Brière is now calling on the French authorities to take immediate steps to allow his repatriation".
On Tuesday, France's foreign ministry said that the sentence had no basis in fact and was "unacceptable".
His sister Blandine Brière told AFP that her brother was a "political hostage," saying that "It is clear that this is a useful political trial for Iran, which sends a message to the French government. We are nothing in the face of this, we feel like pawns in a diplomatic game."
Briere, a 36-year-old travel blogger, has been held in Iran since May 2020, when he was arrested after flying a recreational helicam -- a remote-controlled mini helicopter used to obtain aerial or motion images -- in a national park near the Turkmenistan-Iran border. He went on hunger strike at Valikabad prison in Mashhad in December to protest his detention conditions.
In the past decade, Iran's Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals and foreigners, mostly on unproven allegations of espionage and breach of security, in what human rights organizations have said is essentially hostage taking.
The sentence comes as indirect or "proximity" nuclear talks between Iran and the United States began Tuesday with negotiators in different parts of a hotel in Doha, Qatar.
Enrique Mora, the European Union official who chaired year-long talks in Vienna aimed at reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, JCPOA), is acting as a mediator between the teams led by Rob Malley, the United States special envoy, and Ali Bagheri-Kani, a deputy Iranian foreign minister.
Most of Iran's largest steel factories are located in arid regions such as Esfahan, Yazd, and Kerman provinces despite the very high water use in steel production. 97 percent of Iran’s land is arid or semi-arid.
To produce every metric ton of steel, the industry in Iran uses 230,000 liters of water. According to official figures, the steel industry uses around 70 percent of water reserves of dams, leaving only 30 percent for other industries, agriculture, and urban use.
According to the head of Iran’s National Standards Organization, the industry uses 60 percent more electricity to produce one metric ton of crude steel in comparison with developed countries. The annual wastage of electricity in the industry is around 24 billion KW/H.
At the height of cold and hot months, steel mills have to cope with electricity outages, as usage in Iran is far more than what it can produce. This month, there are reports of industrial plants including steel production shutting down intermittently due to electricity shortages.
The rapid growth in demand for water in Iran – resulting from the growth of population, agriculture, and industries -- has led to severe depletion of available water. The annual renewable water availability per capita reached a crisis level in 2021. Studies by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) indicate that by 2040 Iran is likely to face a severe water stress level.
According to official figures, in December 2021, the volume of water stored behind the country's dams had dropped by 44% in comparison with the same month in the previous year.
Iran is also among the ten countries in the world that extract most groundwater and a hotspot of land subsidence induced by groundwater withdrawal. Ground subsidence has become a serious threat in 18 out of the 31 provinces of Iran and has become a threat to around a quarter of Iran’s urban population.
Hydro-electric electricity production amounts to 15 percent of Iran’s total electricity production which also dropped by around 40 percent in the previous calendar year (ended March 20, 2022) in comparison with the previous year mostly due to drought.
According to the World Steel Association (WSA), Iran produced over 28 million metric tons of steel in 2021, putting it just behind Brazil. The country, however, ranked 15th in net exports.
Iran is planning to produce 32 million metric tons of steel in the current Iranian calendar year (ending March 20, 2022) and authorities hope to climb to the seventh place among the world’s top steel producers by the 2025.
Production of all the top ten suppliers, including top steelmaker China, declined in the first 5 months of 2022, except India that had an increase of 6.5 percent. But Iran had the highest drop.
The steel industry has highly contributed to the drying of Zayandeh Roud river in Esfahan Province and seriously damaged agriculture in the region, giving rise to water protests in the past year.
Amid United States' sanctions on Iran's oil exports, steel is one of the main exports earning foreign currency for the government, which faces a serious financial crunch.