FILE PHOTO: An undated handout photo of Benjamin Briere, a French tourist jailed in Iran on spying charges since spring 2020, who began a hunger strike, as his lawyer and his sister Blandine Briere said in a statement on Monday, released on December 27, 2021. Courtesy of Blandine Briere/Handout via REUTERS
PARIS (Reuters) -An Iranian court on Tuesday sentenced French national Benjamin Briere to eight years in prison on spying charges, his Paris-based lawyer said, describing the trial as a politically motivated sham and his client as a "bargaining chip".
Briere, 36, has been held in Iran since May 2020, when he was arrested after flying a helicam - a remote-controlled mini helicopter used to obtain aerial or motion images - in the desert near the Turkmenistan-Iran border.
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