“He is in the Vakilabad prison in the city of Mashhad. His health is good and he has access to his lawyers. He benefits from consular protection and French embassy officials have been in regular contact with him.”
Iran’s judiciary was not available to comment. France has yet to comment on Briere’s charges.
Last month, France’s foreign ministry confirmed a French citizen was being held in Iran and said it was monitoring the situation.
“Although the French government is pursuing Briere’s case, I am concerned any delay in comprehensive follow-up will further complicate the case,” Dehghan said.
The lawyer said Briere has been charged with “propaganda against the system” because of a post on social media in which he said “the hijab is mandatory” in the Islamic Republic of Iran, but not in other Islamic countries.
“My colleagues and I believe these charges are false and baseless, but we have to wait for the judge to conduct a full investigation in the next few days and announce his verdict,” Dehghan said.
A person close to his family told Reuters last month that Briere, who works in the events industry, had travelled to Iran by van from France.
Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals and foreigners in recent years, mostly on espionage charges.
Rights activists have accused Iran of arresting dual nationals and foreigners to try to win concessions from other countries. Tehran denies it holds people for political reasons and has accused many of the foreigners in its jails of espionage.
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