The family of a Frenchman released after he had been jailed by Iran said on May 13 he was "relieved" to be back in France. On May 12, Benjamin Briere, whose ordeal in Iran lasted three years, and French-Irish citizen Bernard Phelan, held since October 2022, were freed from a prison in the northeastern city of Mashhad, the French Foreign Ministry said. There had been grave concerns about the health of the two men, both of whom had been on hunger strikes to protest their conditions. Briere, 37, was first detained while traveling in Iran in May 2020 and later sentenced to eight years in prison for espionage.
