Boris blunder may cost innocent Brit woman five more years in Iran prison
Gaffe seized on by hardline judge
His misstep is being used for propaganda purposes to hold her HUSBAND RICHARD ON JOHNSON’S MISTAKE
A BRITISH woman may now spend 10 years in an Iranian jail because of a blunder by Boris Johnson.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was sentenced to five years in prison in April after being arrested at Tehran airport while visiting her parents.
The dual British-Iranian national was travelling with her daughter Gabriella when she was held and then tried for trying to overthrow the government.
She has always protested her innocence, saying she was there on holiday.
Mr Johnson told the Foreign Affairs committee last week she was “training journalists” when arrested in 2016.
Four days later, she was hauled from her cell to a court hearing, where the Foreign Secretary’s comments were cited as proof she had been engaged in “propaganda against the regime”.
The Iranian judiciary said: “For months it was claimed that Nazanin is a British-Iranian charity worker who went to see her family... Mr Johnson’s statement has shed new light on the realities.” She appeared before Abolghassem Salavati, a hardline judge who is on an EU sanctions list for “gross human-rights violations”.
Nazanin’s husband Richard Ratcliffe said: “There is a direct link between Boris Johnson’s comments on Wednesday and judge Salavati, the harshest judge you can find, hearing her case on Saturday, where she is now facing a double sentence.
“His misstep saying she was training journalists not that she was on holiday – contradicting what we have said all along – is being used for propaganda purposes to justify holding her.”
Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry said Mr Johnson should consider his position. She told him his comments had “directly harmed the interests... of a British national who instead should have been entitled to expect your support and aid”.
The Foreign Office said the UK will “continue to do all it can to secure her release on humanitarian grounds”.