Health of French-Irish citizen in Iran failing: sister

PARIS: The health of Bernard Phelan, a French-Irish prisoner in Iran who last month suspended a dry hunger strike, is deteriorating, his sister told AFP on Tuesday.

Phelan, a Paris-based travel consultant, was arrested in October while travelling and is being held in Mashhad in northeastern Iran. His eyesight has started to fail, Caroline Masse-Phelan said in a written statement.

Her brother has entered his fifth month of detention in the Islamic republic where he is accused of anti-government propaganda, a charge he denies. The 64-year-old Franco-Irish citizen in January gave up a hunger strike, that included refusing water, at the request of his family.

“His health is getting worse,” Masse-Phelan said in a statement to AFP Tuesday. “He can´t see clearly anymore,” after cornea surgery last year, she said.