Husband of jailed British mother is a spy, says Iran
IRAN: A British woman jailed in Iran has had extra charges filed against her, alleging she is married to a spy and was in the country recruiting for the BBC.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 38, a charity worker with dual nationality, also had a five-year prison sentence upheld by the Tehran court.
The developments appear to have dashed hopes of a speedy release and mean her husband Richard Ratcliffe, will be unable to visit his wife and 2-year-old child, Gabriella, whom he has not seen for nine months.
His daughter is being cared for by his in-laws who live in Iran. Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who works for the charitable wing of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was sentenced to five years in jail in September on national security charges.
She was arrested as she attempted to board a plane to London after visiting her parents in the Iranian capital.
She is one of six people with dual citizenship who have been arrested in Iran over the past year, most on security-related charges.
Her family believe she is being held as a bargaining chip to put pressure on Britain.
She appeared in an impromptu appeal hearing at the start of the month flanked by members of the Revolutionary Guards.
The new charges were brought days after Tobias Ellwood, a British foreign office minister, visited the family in Tehran and raised the case with Iranian authorities.
‘‘It is an insult to the UK and a very bold move from the judiciary to announce this just after the visit. I had high hopes for the minister’s visit to Iran,’’ Ratcliffe said.
‘‘But it looks like the Iranian judiciary are making it up as they go along.’’
Ratcliffe said their lawyer had confirmed his wife’s appeal had been rejected.
The lawyer also confirmed the new charges, including that Zaghari-Ratcliffe ‘‘knowingly married a spy’’ and allegedly ‘‘recruited’’ for BBC Persia in Iran at the time of its founding in 2009, which the BBC has denied.
‘‘Nazanin’s mother was devastated and just broke down on the floor crying. Her parents are in deep shock. It makes it much more risky for me to visit,’’ Ratcliffe added.
He had been trying to secure a visa to see his daughter, whose passport was confiscated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards when his wife was arrested.
He said she had been in Iran so long she had forgotten how to speak English, and he was unable to communicate with his child.
The head of BBC Media Action, where Zaghari-Ratcliffe worked in 2009, sdenied he was involved in ‘‘recruiting’’ for BBC Persia.
‘‘Nazanin worked for BBC World Service Trust . . . this was a junior and purely administrative role,’’ Caroline Nursey, of BBC Media Action, wrote. – The Times