The cousin of Clonmel man Bernard Phelan says he is running out of time.
Greg O’Corry Crowe was speaking about the number of health issues Bernard is experiencing while being detained in an Iranian jail since October 2022.
This comes following the vigil outside the Iranian embassy for the 64-year-old Clonmel man last week, urging for more political intervention for his release.
Bernard was working as a travel consultant in Iran, developing more tourism opportunities for the country, before his arrest in Mashad.
Greg says his cousin’s three and a half-year sentence was supposed to be commuted, and he was due to be pardoned because of how ill he is.
“The prison doctor, I guess, was there to say that he wouldn’t survive the ordeal much longer, and then a week later he [Bernard] was brought back, and that was rescinded, and he was sentenced to six and a half-years. He has chronic back and heart issues; he had a major operation on his eyes recently that needs post-operative care; he’s losing his sight in one eye; and he has obviously lost a huge amount of weight. The issue is that he is running out of time. He’s not just sick, but we don’t know how long he will be able to hang on.”
There needs to be more coordinated action from Irish politicians to ensure the safe release of Bernard, according to Greg, who says representations have been made by Michael Martin to his Iranian counterpart regarding the imprisonment of the Clonmel man.
While the family has been working with the Department of Foreign Affairs and a number of politicians, Greg says a relationship with Iran shouldn’t be normalised if this is how an Irish citizen is treated there.
“Ireland is not a country that you can make a lot of political hay with if you’re Iran. We know, for example, that Ireland is trying to normalise relations with Iran again and reopen an embassy. I think it’s only fair that the public representatives say, “Well, wait a second here, if you can’t guarantee the safety and the security of an Irish person in Iran, then why should we be normalising those kinds of relations?” We don’t have a lot of time; that’s the urgency, and, in a way, that trumps everything, every argument that we have heard regarding the bigger political games. At the end of the day, it’s about bringing somebody home to his family.”
