Nazanin faces new criminal charge in Iran
British mother is called to court on unspecified grounds as her original jail sentence nears end
NAZANIN Zaghari-ratcliffe faces further time in prison in Iran after a court issued a new unspecified charge against her yesterday, state media said.
The British-iranian aid worker has been held in Tehran since 2016 on sedition charges. She was temporarily freed from Evin Prison in March amid the pandemic after serving nearly all her five-year sentence.
“The Islamic Revolutionary court summoned Nazanin Zaghari and her lawyer this morning and informed her of a new indictment,” an unnamed official told the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting news website.
It means Mrs Zahari-ratcliffe, who was due for release in March 2021, could receive another sentence. The project manager for the Thomson Reuters Foundation was arrested on holiday there in 2016, accused of plotting to topple Iran’s clerical establishment.
Her family and employer deny the accusations, saying the 41-year-old from West Hampstead, London, was visiting family with her daughter Gabriella.
“Our colleague is innocent and remains unlawfully held hostage for crimes she has not committed,” said Antonio Zappulla, Thomson Reuters Foundation CEO. “We had desperately hoped there might be an end in sight to her trauma. Instead, she now faces a new charge, details of which remain hidden, following a secret appearance at the country’s revolutionary court.”
Tulip Siddiq, the Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn, tweeted that she had spoken to Mrs Zaghari-ratcliffe and could “confirm that she was taken to court this morning and told she will face another trial on Sunday”.
Her husband Richard Ratcliffe, who has campaigned relentlessly for her release, believes her freedom is contingent on the UK paying Iran money owed on a cancelled Seventies weapons deal. “The failure to resolve this issue has resulted in Nazanin being taken hostage,” Mr Ratcliffe told the BBC’S Panorama last month.
Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, acknowledged he was seeking to pay a debt to the regime in a letter reported in The Guardian on Friday. The debt derives from Chieftain tanks ordered by the Shah of Iran. When the Shah was overthrown in 1979, Britain did not deliver the 1,500 tanks to the new Islamic republic nor return the money. International arbitration in 2008 found the UK owed the debt, worth about £400 million.
Neither the UK nor Iran acknowledge a link between paying the debt and freeing British prisoners in Iran.
Amnesty International condemned the new charge. Kate Allen, its UK director, said: “Nazanin has already been convicted once after a deeply unfair trial, and there should be no question of her being put through that ordeal again. The UK Government should make urgent fresh representations.”