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Nazanin sentenced to another year in Iran prison

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe (photo), the Thomson Reuters Foundation manager held in Iran since 2016, has been sentenced to a further year in prison after being found guilty of propaganda activities against the regime.

She was also banned from leaving the country for one year.

 

Her lawyer said she had been accused of taking part in a demonstration in London 12 years ago and giving an interview to the BBC Persian Service.

 

She has not been taken to prison yet, her husband Richard Ratcliffe said in London, and plans to appeal. Confirming the sentence, he told the BBC the Tehran court's decision was a bad sign and "clearly a negotiating tactic" by the Iranian authorities - who are in the middle of discussions over the country's nuclear activities.

 

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was first jailed in Iran in 2016 on spying charges, which she has always denied.

 

She was moved from prison last year due to the coronavirus crisis and held under house arrest in Tehran until March, when her ankle tag was removed. She returned to court later that month to face the latest propaganda charges.

 

British prime minister Boris Johnson said the UK would "redouble its efforts" to secure her release, and was working with the United States to achieve this.

 

"I don't think it is right at all that Nazanin should be sentenced to any more time in jail," he said. "I think it is wrong that she is there in the first place, and we will be working very hard to secure her release from Iran, her ability to return to her family here in the UK - just as we work for all our dual national cases in Iran.” ■

SOURCE
BBC