Iran jails French national for five years: family

By AFP
November 09, 2023
French citizen Louis Arnaud, shown here in an undated photo provided by his family, was sentenced to five years in prison by an Iranian court. — AFP
French citizen Louis Arnaud, shown here in an undated photo provided by his family, was sentenced to five years in prison by an Iranian court. — AFP

PARIS: 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 and seeking to harm the security of the Islamic republic, 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 traveller” who had long wanted to visit Iran.