TEHRAN, Jan 24: An Iranian court has jailed two men from France and Germany for 18 months for illegally entering the country’s Gulf waters, as the government insisted the case was not linked to tensions with Europe.

“The verdict is imprisonment. They also face another accusation,” judiciary spokesman and Justice Minister Jamal Karimi-Rad told reporters on Tuesday. The nature of the other charge was not made clear.

The French and German foreign ministries confirmed they had been informed the pair, who were arrested in November, were being sent down for 18 months for illegally entering Iranian waters.

The lawyer for German national Donald Klein, who had hired the Frenchman to take him fishing in disputed waters between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Iran, said he would appeal.

“From the day when I officially receive the verdict, I have 20 days to appeal and I definitely intend to do so,” Abdolsamad Khoramshahi said.

Mr Karimi-Rad insisted the verdict and the nuclear standoff were two separate matters, and pointed out that governments had to accept that their law-breaking nationals could be jailed by foreign courts.

“It is a judicial matter. It has nothing to do with such issues,” Mr Karimi-Rad said. “Our citizens have also been convicted in some of these countries and we have not protested.”

Mr Klein’s wife had told German public radio on Jan 17 that he had been sentenced to an 18-month jail term and said she would attempt to appeal the ruling, insisting her 52-year-old husband was innocent.

A court in the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas held a preliminary hearing into the case on Jan 5, with the pair arguing they entered Iranian waters by accident. —AFP