Iran Sentences Citizen Accused of Spying for U.K. to 10 Years

(Bloomberg) -- An Iranian accused of spying on behalf of British intelligence services has been sentenced to 10 years in prison, the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency reported.

A spokesman for the judiciary, Gholamhossein Esmaili, said the unidentified individual had confessed to working for the British Council -- a cultural body overseen by the U.K.’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office -- at the direction of British security services.

Esmaili didn’t give details on the timing of the individual’s arrest or trial, ISNA reported.

In April 2016, Iran arrested British-Iranian Nazanin Zarghari-Ratcliffe while she was travelling in Iran with her husband and infant daughter. She was sentenced to five years in prison later that year after being charged with plotting to overthrow the Islamic Republic.

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