An Iranian court has sentenced a European man on national security charges after being detained for over a year, his family announced on Wednesday, November 8.
An Iranian court has ordered a five-year jail sentence against a French national tried on national security charges and held in prison for over a year, his family announced on Wednesday.
The French foreign ministry swiftly denounced the sentence against Louis Arnaud, calling it “unacceptable.”
Arnaud, a banking consultant, was detained in Iran in September last year and has been held in Tehran’s Evin prison.
Arnaud was handed the sentence by a Revolutionary Court on charges of making propaganda against the Islamic Republic and seeking to harm its security, the family said in a statement.
The family said Arnaud was innocent of all charges and denounced the verdict as “an attack on human rights and individual freedoms”.
The statement described Arnaud as a “passionate traveler” who had long wanted to visit Iran.
“Unfortunately, his dream turned into a nightmare when he was unjustly targeted, imprisoned, and now convicted on baseless charges, stripping him of his freedom and rights.”
It insisted he had “kept a distance from the social movements that were starting” while in Iran, in reference to the protest movement that erupted in September 2022.
Arnaud has lodged an appeal against the verdict, the family added.
The verdict has so far not been reported by Iranian media or publicly confirmed by the Iranian judiciary.
Arnaud is one of at least a dozen foreign nationals held by Tehran in what activists and Western governments have described as a deliberate hostage-taking strategy aimed at extracting concessions from the West.
The French foreign ministry expressed its “utmost concern” and said the sentence was “unacceptable.”
The ministry said “there is no evidence” to support the ruling, and Arnaud did not have access to a lawyer.
Aside from Arnaud, three other French citizens are held by Iran: teacher Cecile Kohler and her partner Jacques Paris, and a man identified only by his first name, Olivier.
Khalil Wakim, with AFP
