Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: British-Iranian aid worker has her ankle monitor removed, but faces a new trial date

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: British-Iranian aid worker has her ankle monitor removed, but faces a new trial date

by

Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been under house arrest for almost a year because of the coronavirus pandemic. His five-year sentence would end on Sunday.

“I’m still trying to understand what’s going on – but the news is confusing,” Richard Ratcliffe told CNN. The ankle tag in the first case was canceled, but Nazanin was summoned to court next week for the second case. Therefore, the games continue. “

Iran’s semi-official news agency, Isna, quoted Nazanin-Zaghari’s lawyer, Hojjat Kermani, as saying she would be tried on her other charge on March 14.

UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said he welcomed the news. “We welcome the removal of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s ankle tag, but Iran’s continued treatment is intolerable,” he tweeted on Sunday. “She must be allowed to return to the UK as soon as possible to be reunited with her family.”

On Sunday, British parliamentarian Tulip Siddiq, who has been in contact with Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s family, said that Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s first trip after removing the ankle tag would be to visit his grandmother.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe photographed with his daughter Gabriella.

A Thomson Reuters Foundation employee, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested at Tehran airport in April 2016. She was trying to return home to London after visiting the family with her 22-month-old daughter Gabriella.

The Iranian government has accused her of working with organizations that allegedly try to overthrow the regime, accusations that she and the Thomson Reuters Foundation have consistently denied. She was sentenced to five years in prison.

In September, Iranian state media reported that Zaghari-Ratcliffe and his defense lawyer were summoned to the “Branch 15” court to face new charges, but did not provide further details. It is not yet clear what the new charge or charges may entail.
The British government classified the new charges as “indefensible and unacceptable”.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, now 42, was transferred from prison to house arrest during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic in Iran. According to the British government, she was still under house arrest earlier this year.

She received British diplomatic protection in 2019 and was designated a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International.

Speaking in Parliament earlier this year, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the government is “doing everything we can” to guarantee Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s release from “completely unjustified detention in Tehran”.

Iranian state TV shows unseen video of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe
Johnson was personally involved in the case. In 2017, when he was secretary of foreign affairs, he was forced to apologize after a serious mistake in which he told a parliamentary committee that Zaghari-Ratcliffe was teaching journalism during his visit to Iran. He later clarified that she had visited relatives before being arrested.
The comments seemed to prompt Zaghari-Ratcliffe to be summoned to an unscheduled hearing, in which Johnson’s remarks were cited as evidence that she had been involved in “propaganda against the regime”. A month later, he traveled to Tehran to press for the release of the dual nationals detained in Iran.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe has had at least three hunger strikes since she was arrested, one in a desperate attempt to get medical treatment for lumps in the breasts and numbness in the limbs. Last February, her family said that she believed she had contracted the coronavirus in Evin prison, just outside Tehran. In August 2018, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was treated at the hospital after suffering panic attacks, her husband said. In 2019, her supporters said she was transferred to the psychiatric ward of a hospital in Tehran and was denied visits by her father.

Lindsay Isaac and Hande Atay Alam contributed to this report.

.Source