Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the Iranian-British charity worker jailed in Iran, has been told she will appear in court next month accused of spreading propaganda, her husband said on Thursday.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a 38-year-old project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested in April 2016 as she was returning to Britain from a family visit with her then one-year-old daughter.
The new court date follows foreign secretary Boris Johnson’s statement earlier this month that she had been training journalists during her visit to Iran.
The comments contradicted the position of the British government, as well as Mrs Zaghari Ratcliffe’s family and defence team, and were seized on by Iranian media as evidence of her guilt and that she was involved in spying.
Mr Johnson later apologised and telephoned Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, to make clear that Mrs Zaghari had been on holiday.
“She’s been told she will appear in court on Dec. 10,” Richard Ratcliffe said on Thursday. She was initially sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty of plotting to overthrow Iran’s clerical establishment.
She and her family deny the charges. She lost her final appeal against the initial charges in April.
Mr Johnson is expected to visit Tehran before the end of the year to discuss the case and the deal to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
The Iranian government denies mistreating Mrs Nazarin Ratcliffe and says she has the right to twice-weekly contact with her family, including her daughter, who is living with relatives in Tehran.
The Iranian government does not recognise dual nationals and therefore does not permit them consular assistance.
In October Mrs Nazarin Ratcliffe’s family said she had been informed she would face fresh charges that could carry an additional sentence of 16 years in jail.
The Iranian embassy in London at the time confirmed that she may face new charges, but denied that she was facing an extra 16 years.
Source » telegraph