A British-Iranian woman who had been imprisoned in Iran for five years on charges of espionage ended her sentence on Sunday, her lawyer said, but faces a new trial and will not be able to return to Britain for now.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was able to remove the shackle for the first time since he was released from prison last March on special leave in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the lawyer said. Since then, he has been under house arrest at his parents’ home in Tehran.
The Iranian state press reported Sunday that the woman has been summoned to appear in court again on March 13 on vaguely defined charges of propaganda dissemination.
The case has strained relations between Britain and Iran and sparked great anger internationally.
Britain’s foreign secretary Dominic Raab was pleased that Zaghari-Ratcliffe can remove the shackle, but insisted that he should be allowed to return to Britain.
The treatment she has received from Iran is intolerable, Raab wrote on Twitter. They must allow her to return to Britain as soon as possible so that she can be reunited with her family, he added.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 42, was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government, something she, her supporters and human rights groups strongly deny. She was arrested when she arrived at the airport with her young daughter after visiting relatives in Tehran in 2016. At the time, she was working for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, a charitable agency affiliated with the news agency.
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