Gaffe may land mum extra five years in jail
A BRITISH mother jailed in Iran for ‘plotting against the state’ could face another five years behind bars after Boris Johnson wrongly told MPs she had been training journalists in the country.
The Foreign Secretary was facing calls to resign last night after the Tehran regime levelled fresh charges against charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been held in prison since April 2016.
Mr Johnson’s error came during evidence to the foreign affairs select committee last week.
Four days later, Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has always maintained she was in the country on a family holiday, was hauled back before the courts for an unscheduled hearing. Mr Johnson’s remarks, branded ‘unhelpful and careless’ by her family, were cited as proof of her guilt.
The 38-year-old, from Hampstead, London, who is serving a five-year sentence, could see it doubled on charges of ‘propaganda against the regime’.
Her family have called on Mr Johnson to retract the ‘serious mistake’ which they said has harmed her chances of early release. Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry said Mr Johnson’s ‘gross error’ had ‘directly harmed the interests and prospects of a British national who instead should have been entitled to expect your support and aid’. She urged him to ‘consider your position accordingly’.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a dual British Iranian national who works for Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested at Tehran airport on her return journey to London. She was sentenced on charges of plotting against the state after a secret trial. Her defence was that she had never worked in Iran and does not train journalists.
Her three-year-old daughter Gabriella has been forced to stay in Iran with her maternal grandparents.
Mr Johnson has issued no apology but the Foreign Office insisted his comments provided ‘no justifiable basis’ for additional charges.