Iran claims BBC payslip is proof of jailed British mother’s guilt
IRAN has levelled further allegations at Nazanin Zaghari-ratcliffe, the imprisoned British mother, including what it claims is proof that she was training journalists.
The allegations, complete with a close-up of an April 2010 payslip from the BBC World Service Trust, Mrs Za- ghari-ratcliffe’s former employer, appeared on Iranian state television last week, it emerged yesterday.
The report also featured a June 2010 email where Mrs Zaghari-ratcliffe referred to the “Zigzag Academy”, a BBC World Service Trust project where she had a role training “young aspiring journalists from Iran and Afghanistan through a secure online platform”.
Mrs Zaghari-ratcliffe left the BBC in 2011 to join the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of the news agency.
Both Richard Ratcliffe, her husband, and Thomson Reuters repeatedly stressed she was not training journalists or involved in any work regarding Iran while there. Mr Ratcliffe said yesterday that the timing of the broadcast was designed to put further pressure on London as it considers making a £400million payment to Tehran.
He said the material appeared to have been sourced from his wife’s email, which was accessed by the Revolutionary Guards after her arrest. “It’s trying to justify the new charges,” Mr Ratcliffe said.
In recent weeks, the case has gathered momentum in the UK, with a support rally taking place in London on Saturday and growing pressure on Boris Johnson to resolve the matter.
The Foreign Secretary has been heavily criticised for erroneously stating to a parliamentary committee that Mrs Zaghari-ratcliffe was “teaching people journalism” at the time of her arrest. Despite having walked back from the statement at a later date, Mr Johnson’s words have been held up by the Iranians as damning evidence of her guilt. The misstatement was again highlighted in yesterday’s seven-minute special report.
Mrs Zaghari-ratcliffe, 38, is already serving a five-year sentence in Tehran’s Evin prison, but new charges could draw out her prison term by 16 years. She travelled to Tehran with her toddler daughter on Mar 17 2016 for a family visit.
Sixteen days later, as mother and child were about to board a flight back to the UK, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard arrested Mrs Zaghari-ratcliffe. Her daughter, now three, remains in Iran in the care of relatives.
Britain and Iran are discussing the release of £400million held by London, a payment the Shah made for Chieftain tanks that were never delivered. Though the payment has no formal link to this case, the return of these funds could generate goodwill.