Micheál Martin to discuss case of Tipperary man with Iran's Foreign Minister

Bernard Phelan, who is facing the death penalty in Iran, was recently persuaded to stop a hunger strike

Bernard Phelan from Tipperary was arrested last year and accused of a variety of offences — including photographing police officers — which he has since strenuously denied.

Micheál Martin has arranged to speak to Iranian officials to discuss the case of an Irishman facing the death penalty in the country.

Bernard Phelan from Tipperary was arrested last year and accused of a variety of offences — including photographing police officers — which he has since strenuously denied.

His sister Caroline was called by a Department of Foreign Affairs official on Thursday afternoon and told that the Minister for Foreign Affairs has written to the Iranian government. His letter follows on from one sent by his predecessor Simon Coveney.

“I was called and given an update on what Ireland is doing to help my brother’s case,” she told the Irish Examiner, speaking from her home in France.

“Micheál Martin has written to his opposite number in Iran and asked if they can have a phone call to discuss Bernard’s case. I’m very happy to hear this because the more lines of communication we have open with the authorities in Iran the better.”

Among the other accusations faced by the 64-year-old eco and adventure travel consultant from Clonmel is that he was engaged in propaganda against the Iranian regime.

He has also been accused of sending photographs to the Guardian newspaper in the UK, and of stealing two pieces of 900-year-old pottery from a historic village he had travelled to. 

Caroline said:

No - he would not be remotely interested or involved in this kind of activity.

“He was a travel consultant who loves Iran and is absolutely fascinated by the country. He would not be a political animal by any stretch of the imagination and is just very into adventure tourism and promoting and visiting places that would not be your obvious tourist destination.”

Although Bernard was recently persuaded to stop a hunger strike he went on, she believes he will go back on it.

“He has an extremely strong personality,” she said.

He has a heart condition and a hunger strike could kill him, and he knows it. But he feels really strongly about what has happened.

He called off the strike after his family pleaded with him.

“This has really hit his father Vincent physically and mentally,” Caroline said. “He’s 97 and I do worry about the impact of this on him.”

Officials from both the Department of Foreign Affairs and France’s Foreign Ministry are involved in liaising with the Iranian authorities because Mr Phelan has dual French and Irish nationality.

At the time he was arrested last October, he had been travelling through the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad with an Iranian client and had been travelling on a French passport.

After his arrest, he was held in solitary confinement for a few weeks before being transferred to the notorious Vakilabad Prison, where he shares a cell with up to 16 others. Some of his cell block mates are understood to have been executed recently.