His survival is “a matter of days,” his family says. French-Irish Bernard Phelan, 64, was arrested on October 3 in Iran and has been imprisoned ever since in very precarious sanitary conditions in Mashhad, the country’s second largest city. His arrest and imprisonment were confirmed by the French Foreign Ministry on Tuesday after an initial confirmation from Irish diplomacy last week.
The Quai d’Orsay said it was “extremely concerned” about the detainee’s state of health, who began a thirsty strike on Monday. The detainee’s sister, Caroline Massé-Phelan, affirms that her brother is “innocent” and urges Tehran to release him on humanitarian grounds.
Why was Bernard Phelan in Iran?
According to his sister, the 60-year-old was on a “study trip” as part of his activities as a “consultant in Iran for a tour operator” when he was arrested in early October. He “loved Iran,” she says, and “brought tourists there.” He had arrived in Iran on September 17 and was not particularly afraid, according to his sister.
Why is he imprisoned?
The exact reason for Bernard Phelan’s detention has not been publicly communicated by Iran or commented on by the Quai d’Orsay. “He was not tried” but he was arrested on the pretext that he was making propaganda against the Iranian regime, says his sister.
The situation of the Franco-Irish is reminiscent of that of several other Westerners, including six other Frenchmen who were arrested shortly after the outbreak of the protest movement in Iran in reaction to the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman detained for improperly wearing her headscarf. and died three days later. Bernard Phelan left for Iran the day after her death.
“My brother’s trip was planned for a long time,” explains Caroline Massé-Phelan.
Supporters of the arrested Westerners describe them as innocents used by the Revolutionary Guards as leverage in Iran’s relations with the West. Tehran and major powers have long tried unsuccessfully to revive a 2015 international deal that aims to guarantee the civilian nature of Iran’s nuclear program. Tehran is accused, despite its denials, of trying to acquire atomic weapons.
“I think he is part of a group of Europeans imprisoned for political reasons (…) of whom I know nothing”, “we have nothing to do with this story,” his sister declared.
“He is an innocent in the middle of I don’t know what story (…) who is sick, who just wants to go home,” he laments.
Why is your situation worrying?
After going on a hunger strike on New Year’s Day to protest his detention, Bernard Phelan has been on a thirst strike since Monday, and indeed his state of health has deteriorated drastically. A diplomatic source told AFP that the 60-year-old man showed “serious signs of physical and mental exhaustion.”
“She is no longer well. She has lost weight”, but “she does this because she can’t take it anymore”, “they are the only weapons” she has, underlines Caroline Massé-Phelan.
The detainee also suffers from a heart problem and a bone pathology that requires medical treatment. Bernard Phelan’s state of health is “fragile and requires adequate medical control that is not provided in his place of detention,” laments Anne-Claire Legendre, communication director at the Quai d’Orsay, who demands that “he be released Without delay”.
The families of the seven French detainees are growing increasingly worried as winter weather makes conditions increasingly harsh in the overcrowded, windowless cells in the freezing cold.
The ministry “multiplies, in relation to the Irish government, the negotiations with Iran” so that Bernard Phelan is released “without delay.”
The sixty-year-old is in contact twice a day with the Quai d’Orsay crisis and support unit “which transmits messages from his family,” said the French diplomatic source. But the Iranian authorities have denied all requests for direct communication with the family.
The Franco-Irishman received his first French consular visit only on January 9, after repeated requests, the diplomatic source also explained. His 95-year-old father wrote to the Iranian embassy in Ireland asking for his release.
Source: BFM TV
