Woman jailed in Iran ‘after spying for UK’
AN Iranian woman who worked for the British Council has been jailed for ten years in Tehran after being accused of spying for the UK, it has emerged.
The Foreign Office yesterday said it was ‘very concerned’ by reports relating to the Iranian national, identified by friends as Aras Amiri.
Miss Amiri, 32, was arrested in March last year after visiting her sick grandmother in Iran.
The sentencing came as Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt warned armed conflict could be sparked ‘by accident’ amid rising tensions between the US and Iran over a nuclear deal.
British relations with the regime have also been strained by the imprisonment of British mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, jailed for five years over false spying charges.
Her husband Richard Ratcliffe said the jail term handed to Miss Amiri was a ‘real slap in the face’, adding the women are being held as ‘bargaining chips’. Gholamhossein Esmaili, a judiciary spokesman, said on Iranian state television that the woman worked for the cultural agency British Council and was cooperating with Britain’s foreign intelligence service, but did not identify her.
At a news conference, he said
she was a student in Britain before being recruited to run the British Council’s Iran desk. He claimed she was in charge of projects for ‘cultural infiltration’ in Iran and has been in custody for almost a year.
A friend said Miss Amiri is a resident in Britain but does not have British nationality.
The Foreign Office said: ‘We have not been able to confirm any further details and are urgently seeking information.’
‘Bargaining chips’