Iran sets new court date for jailed Nazanin

NAZANIN ZAGHARI-RATCLIFFE, the Iranian-british charity worker jailed in Iran, will appear in court next month on a propaganda charge, her husband said yesterday.

“She’s been told she will appear in court on Dec 10,” he told Reuters. He said that he understood she will be accused of spreading propaganda.

Mrs Zaghari-ratcliffe, a 38-year-old project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested in April 2016 as she was returning to Britain from a family visit with her then one-year-old daughter.

The new court date follows a statement from Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, earlier this month that she had been training journalists during her visit to Iran.

Mr Johnson’s comments contradicted the position of the British government, as well as Mrs Zaghari- Ratcliffe’s family and defence team, and were seized on by Iranian media as evidence of her guilt and that she was involved in spying.

Mr Johnson later apologised and telephoned Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, to make clear that Mrs Zaghari-ratcliffe had been on holiday.

Mr Johnson is expected to visit Tehran in the coming weeks to discuss the case and the deal that prevents Iran from developing nuclear weapons.