Iran Sends U.K. Charity Worker Back to Court After Release
Iran Releases British-Iranian Charity Worker Accused of Spying
(Bloomberg) -- Iranian authorities released a British-Iranian charity worker detained in 2016 on national security charges, yet told her she must face court again, a decision that could extend strained ties between the U.K. and Tehran.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was in prison until last year when she was transferred to house arrest, had her electronic ankle bracelet removed on Sunday and is “in good shape and happy to be released,” her lawyer, Hojjat Kermani, said.
Kermani said it’s unclear whether she will be able to leave Iran and return to the U.K. anytime soon, because she now faces another ruling on a prior charge of engaging in propaganda against the state and must appear in court on March 14.
He said the hearing will be the “last session” related to that charge, without giving details on the terms of Sunday’s release from house arrest. It raises the possibility that additional charges could be brought against her or that the final terms of her release may involve restrictions on travel. Zaghari-Ratcliffe has always strongly denied the charges against her.
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said “her continued confinement remains totally unacceptable” and called for her full release.
An additional charge or a prolonged detention will further complicate relations between Iran and the U.K. which have already become heavily strained over the fate of the beleaguered 2015 nuclear accord and Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s arrest. Her detention has at times proved a major challenge for Johnson, who while serving as foreign secretary in 2017 was forced to apologize after saying she had been in the country training journalists and not on holiday at the time of her arrest.
An employee of the Thomson Reuters Foundation when she was detained, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was seized by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport in April 2016 and separated from her daughter, a toddler at the time, after visiting her family in Iran.
She was soon accused of fomenting sedition and conspiring to topple the Islamic Republic on behalf of “foreign enemies” -- a charge often leveled at dual-nationals detained by Iran’s judiciary and the IRGC.
Rights groups and Western governments frequently condemn Iran’s practice of arresting dual Iranian citizens on vague and broad security charges as a form of hostage taking. She has always said she was on vacation in Iran with her baby daughter visiting relatives.
Her husband Richard Ratcliffe, who has led a prolific campaign for her release, told Press Association that she was “genuinely happy” and spent part of her day visiting her grandmother. But he said the forthcoming court appearance left him feeling “guarded” and still “in the middle of this government game of chess”.
Last year, Ratcliffe alleged the imprisonment was related to a multimillion-dollar legal dispute between Iran and the U.K. over a military deal signed before the 1979 revolution in Iran.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe was held in Tehran’s Evin prison until March 2020, when she was put under house arrest as part of a furlough to contain the spread of the coronavirus in Iran’s jails.
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