‘Johnson should not quit’:

Britain

Johnson

The husband of an Iranian-British aid worker jailed in Iran said British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson should not resign over his comments on the case, despite opposition calls for him to do so.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was sentenced to five years after being convicted by an Iranian court of plotting to overthrow the Islamic Republic’s clerical establishment. She denies the charges.

Johnson said on Nov. 1 that she had been teaching people journalism before her arrest in April 2016, contradicting her and her employer, who said she had been on holiday visiting her family.

The Thomson Reuters Foundation, a charity organisation which is independent of Thomson Reuters and operates independently of Reuters News, said Johnson’s comments were wrong and opposition British lawmakers said they might provoke Tehran to hand the dual national a longer jail term. Johnson later said his remarks could have been clearer and there was no doubt she had been on holiday although opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said he should resign.

“Undoubtedly what has been said by the foreign secretary has been used in the Iranian media,” her husband Richard Ratcliffe told BBC radio. “I don’t think it’s helpful for Nazanin at this point (for Johnson to resign).

“I don’t think it’s helpful also in terms of how it looks in Iran for me to be looking like I’m playing politics.”

He said he had spoken to Johnson by phone and they had discussed going to Iran together which he said he hoped would help her case. (RTRS)