Johnson quote proves British prisoner’s guilt, says Iranian TV

IRANIAN state television has seized on comments made by Boris Johnson about a British-iranian prisoner as a “confession of her real plot”.

A news bulletin said Mr Johnson’s suggestion that Nazanin Zaghari-ratcliffe was “training journalists” had “dealt a blow” to her claim that she was merely visiting her family on a holiday.

Mr Johnson admitted his comments “could have been clearer”, and told MPS that the Government “has no doubt that she was on holiday” in Iran at the time of her arrest in April 2016. He told Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, in a phone call that there was “no justifiable basis” for further legal action against her.

But the bulletin on Iran’s channel 2 said Mr Johnson’s “inadvertent confession” meant she had been teaching Iranian journalists, adding: “The sole sentence uttered from the mouth of the UK Foreign Secretary put the efforts of the British media [propaganda] in vain.”

Tulip Siddiq, her local MP, tweeted: “It seems Boris’ assurances … have been ignored. His errors aren’t funny – for my constituent this is life and death.”

Mrs Zaghari-ratcliffe, a 38-year-old charity worker from Hampstead, north London, is serving five years in prison for “being involved in a planned coup”.

Following Mr Johnson’s comments, Mrs Zaghari-ratcliffe, who has always maintained her innocence, was summoned back to court and threatened with the doubling of her sentence.

Mr Johnson is to go to Iran soon to plead Mrs Zaghari-ratcliffe’s case.