French Tourist Sentenced to 5 Years in Iranian Prison Sparks International Outrage

A French national, Louis Arnaud, has been sentenced to five years in jail by an Iranian court on charges of making propaganda against and seeking to harm the security of the Islamic republic. Arnaud's family maintains his innocence and denounces the verdict as an attack on human rights and individual freedoms. Arnaud has lodged an appeal against the verdict. He is one of at least a dozen foreign nationals held by Iran in what activists and Western governments describe as a deliberate hostage-taking strategy.