Hopes of Christmas release for Nazanin dashed by court

TEHRAN’S judiciary chief yesterday dismissed hopes of a swift release for Nazanin Zaghari-ratcliffe, the British mother serving a five-year jail sentence for alleged sedition.

Gholamhossein Esmaili said there was no possibility that she could be freed until she had been tried on additional charges filed last month of “spreading propaganda”.

Mr Esmaili told the judiciary’s Mizanonline news service: “Nazanin Zaghari has two cases – in the first, she has been convicted, but the second has yet to go to court and there is no verdict.

“The court can convict or acquit her. If she is convicted, we don’t know what the sentence will be. So we don’t know when she will be able to be released.” Mrs Zaghari-ratcliffe, who has dual British-iranian nationality, was arrested at Tehran airport in April 2016 after visiting her parents.

Iranian authorities accused her of links to mass protests in 2009, which she denies, and sentenced her to five years. Iran does not recognise her dual nationality. Her case became politicised, especially after a “slip of the tongue” by Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, when he said Mrs Zaghariratcliffe had been training journalists in Iran. It was this that prosecutors seized upon to help justify the new charges brought against her.

Mr Johnson visited Tehran earlier this month to press for her release on humanitarian grounds.