Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian aid worker, was released from house arrest at the end of her five-year prison term, but her lawyer said that she has been summoned to court again on another charge. Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a Thomson Reuters Foundation project manager, was detained in a Tehran airport in April 2016 and later convicted of planning to overthrow the clerical establishment. Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who served the majority of her sentence in Tehran’s Evin prison, was released and put under house arrest in March last year during the coronavirus pandemic, though her movements were restricted and she was not permitted to leave the country.
Last year, she was pardoned by Ayatullah Syed Ali Khamenei, but she spent the final year of her sentence under house arrest with electronic shackles on her foot. They’ve been discarded now Hojjat Kermani, her lawyer, told an Iranian website. The Iranian judiciary did not respond to a request for comment on the release. The allegation is denied by her family and the foundation, which operates independently of Thomson Reuters and its news subsidiary Reuters.
A hearing for Zaghari-second Ratcliffe’s case has been set for March 14, according to Hojjat Kermani. In this case, she is accused of propagandising against the Islamic Republic’s regime by taking part in a rally in front of the Iranian Embassy in London in 2009 while simultaneously giving an interview to the BBC Persian TV channel, Hojjat Kermani said.
He expressed his hope that considering the previous investigation, this case will be closed at this time. As promised, Nazanin must be granted her freedom. The elimination of Zaghari-ankle Ratcliffe’s tag was accepted by British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab, but he said that Iran continued to subject Nazanin and her family to a cruel and unbearable ordeal.
“She needs to be permanently released so she can re-join her family in the United Kingdom. We have made it abundantly clear to the Iranian authorities that her continued detention is intolerable “Mr. Raab explained. Detentions of thousands of dual nationals and foreigners have strained ties between Tehran and a number of European countries, including Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, which are all signatories to Iran’s 2015 nuclear agreement with six world powers. The news comes as Iran and the US attempt to resurrect an agreement that was scrapped in 2018 by former US President Donald Trump, who reimposed sanctions on Iran. Tehran retaliated by reducing its compliance.
