Bernard Phelan's family plead for Government action amid 'grave concerns' for him in Iran

Bernard Phelan's family said he was working to help promote Iran as a tourist destination when he was seized in Mashad and put in prison. Picture: Caroline Massé Phelan.

Family members of an “innocent and gravely ill” Irish man imprisoned in Iran have made an impassioned plea for the Irish Government to pull out all the stops to bring him home.

At an emotional press conference in Dublin, cousins of Bernard Phelan spoke of the urgent need for him to be released and urged the Government not to re-open an embassy in Tehran while “one of our own” remains in jail on “trumped-up charges”.