Louis Arnaud, held in Tehran’s Evin prison, was sentenced by Iran’s Revolutionary Court for propaganda against the Islamic Republic and seeking to undermine its security, the family said in a statement.
The family condemned the verdict as an attack on human rights and personal freedoms.
France on Wednesday strongly condemned the Iranian court’s decision to sentence its citizen to five years in prison.
France’s foreign ministry said Arnaud’s imprisonment was unacceptable, adding that Paris was calling for “the immediate release of him and all Frenchmen arbitrarily detained in Iran.”
In a family statement, L. Arnaud is described as an avid traveler who had long wanted to visit Iran and had no political intentions. “Unfortunately, his dream turned into a nightmare when he was wrongly (…) imprisoned and convicted on baseless charges,” it said.
The family added that L. Arnaud appealed the verdict.
L. Arnaud is one of a dozen foreigners held in Iran. Activists and Western governments say Tehran is deliberately taking hostages to extract concessions from the West.
Several foreigners imprisoned in Iran have been released in recent months. Among them are five Americans released in a complex exchange for billions of dollars (euro) in Iranian funds that were frozen in a single account in South Korea.
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2024-09-27 23:50:23
