Iranian Supreme Court rejects Aras Amiri appeal as she faces 10 years for espionage
British Council employee Aras Amiri faces 10 years in jail on spying charges in Iran after losing her final appeal.
Ms Amiri, who is also an aesthetics and art theory student at Kingston University, was arrested in March last year while visiting her ill grandmother in Tehran.
The Iranian citizen, who has permanent residency status in the United Kingdom, has not been allowed to leave Iran since.
In May, she was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being accused of spying for the British Council.
The Iranian judiciary said Ms Amiri was “in charge of the Iran desk in the British Council and was co-operating with Britain’s intelligence agency”.
She appealed against the sentence by writing a letter to Ebrahim Raeesi, the chief justice of the Iranian judicial system.
Iran Wire said it had seen the letter, in which she provided details about her arrest and imprisonment.
Ms Amiri said she was arrested on the street and taken to a hotel in Tehran for questioning, before being transferred to the notorious Evin prison, where British-Iranian citizen Nazanin Zaghari- Ratcliffe is also serving a sentence for espionage. Bail was set at 700 million Iranian rials (Dh61,066) but despite the money being posted in cash, Ms Amiri was not released.
She spent 30 days in solitary confinement and was interrogated by Iranian authorities about her job at the British Council.
She said that she learnt of her sentencing on espionage charges only when she watched it on Iranian national television.
But this weekend the Supreme Court ruled to uphold the conviction and prison term.
Ms Amiri’s cousins told The
National in June that Iran had put pressure on her to become a spy for the regime in exchange for her freedom.
The UK Foreign Office said in May that it was “very concerned by reports that an Iranian Brit
The British Council denies the accusation made by Iran that its employee Ms Amiri was spying for them
ish Council employee has been sentenced to jail on charges of espionage”.
The British Council denies the accusation made against Ms Amiri, who worked as an artistic officer to promote “greater appreciation of Iranian culture in the UK”.
Ms Amiri has a fiance living in Britain who has been unable to obtain a visa to visit her in Iran since her arrest.
Yesterday, the husband of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe criticised British Prime Minister Boris Johnson for failing to meet her family as her prison conditions worsen.
The rules in Evin prison have recently become stricter, meaning she is no longer allowed to call her husband in the UK and she can see her daughter Gabriella only once a month. She was previously able to see her every few days.
Since becoming prime minister last month, Mr Johnson has come under pressure to engage with Iran to negotiate the release of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe. During his campaign to enter Downing Street, Mr Johnson said he felt “a deep sense of anguish” over Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s case.
While serving as foreign secretary between 2016 and last year, Mr Johnson said that Mrs Zaghari- Ratcliffe had been jailed for “simply teaching people journalism”.
But this was inconsistent with her claims. The dual citizen said she had made the visit to allow her daughter to meet her Iranian grandparents. Mr Johnson has since faced a backlash for reducing the likelihood of her release.