She was described by those close to her as a joyful and vibrant woman. Sylvie Brunner, first secretary of the Swiss embassy in Iran, was found dead Tuesday morning at the foot of a building in Tehran. According to Iranian emergency services, this 52-year-old diplomat, who had been in post since July 2020, fell from the 17the floor of the tower where she lived in Kamranieh, a wealthy district in the north of the Iranian capital.
Contacted by Point, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), the Swiss equivalent of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, confirms that an employee of the Swiss embassy in Tehran died Tuesday in a “fatal accident”. However, he refuses, invoking the “protection of data and privacy of the person”, to confirm or deny his identity, yet already revealed by the Iranian and Swiss media. “The FDFA, and its leader, Federal Councilor Ignazio Cassis, are saddened by this tragic death and offer their most sincere condolences to the family”, explains in a message sent to Point its spokesperson, Pierre-Alain Eltschinger.
Suicide hypothesis
Iran’s foreign ministry also offered condolences, and said the diplomat’s body had been transferred to the Iranian forensic organization. Iranian diplomacy spokesman Saïd Khatibzadeh clarified that the Swiss ambassador in Tehran had discussed the incident with his Iranian counterparts and that the Swiss representation would be informed of the results of the investigation as soon as those – these will be known.
The first elements of the investigation, however, seem to support the hypothesis of suicide. According to the Iranian Rokna news agency, which specializes in handling news items, a handwritten note was notably found on a table in the living room of the diplomat’s apartment. “This is a farewell message to his son,” explains the Point Azadeh Mokhtari, one of two journalists from Rokna, who wrote the first article on the case. “The information comes to us from the judicial police officers in charge of the investigation, who had access to the home, but we have to wait for the conclusions of forensic medicine. ”
Iranian-American negotiations
The case is all the more sensitive as Sylvie Brunner also worked, within the Swiss embassy, as deputy in the section representing the interests of the United States in the Islamic Republic. Since the breakdown of relations between Washington and Tehran on April 7, 1980, following the hostage-taking by Islamist students of 52 American diplomats on November 4, 1979, it is the Swiss representation in Tehran that manages bilateral ties. between the two countries. Last July, Switzerland allowed the delivery of anti-cancer drugs to Iran, despite US sanctions against the Islamic Republic, thanks to a humanitarian trade agreement agreed with the United States earlier in the year.
The two enemy countries are currently engaged in intense diplomatic negotiations in Vienna aimed at allowing a common return to the Iran nuclear deal. An agreement from which Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew in May 2018, before Iran resumed its sensitive atomic activities. On the sidelines of these discussions, Iranian state television announced on Sunday an agreement between Americans and Iranians on the release of four Iranian-American prisoners held in Iran, in exchange for four Iranian nationals imprisoned in the United States and the release of $ 7 billion in frozen Iranian assets. An exchange finally denied by both Washington and Tehran.
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