Relatives of the French made public on Saturday a text of thanks to the French authorities “for their unfailing support” and to journalists.
Finally among his own. Frenchman Benjamin Brière, who has returned to France after being detained for three years in a prison in Iran, has found his relatives. He is “relieved and soothed”, but “very weakened physically and morally”said his family in a press release published on Saturday, May 13. “We were able to hug him at 7:30 p.m. on Friday May 12 after three years of hell”she also explains in a text of thanks to the French authorities “for their unwavering support” and journalists for having “door [leurs] voice”.
“The return to normal life will be long and certainly difficult, but it is now in good hands.”
Benjamin Briere’s familyin a press release
Benjamin Brière, 37, and Bernard Phelan, 64, were released after a long captivity in Iran, and arrived Friday evening on board a medical plane at Le Bourget airport, near Paris.
Benjamin Brière, greatly diminished by a hunger strike, was arrested in May 2020, accused of espionage. Bernard Phelan, 64, tourism consultant, also ill, was arrested on October 3, 2022 for undermining national security.
The two men, who have always maintained their innocence, have been released “in good faith”as part of’“humanitarian action”, the Iranian foreign ministry said. Four other French people are still detained in Iran, a fifth was released in February but cannot leave the country.
“All our thoughts are now with the five other French hostages still held in Iran. We are also thinking of the other families of European hostages held in Iran, with whom we shared this heavy and painful fight. We send them strength and courage, and will continue to fight alongside them”writes the family of Benjamin Brière.