Iran jails British-Iranian aid worker for 1 year

TEHRAN, Iran

An Iranian revolutionary court on Monday sentenced British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe to one year in prison on charges of “propaganda activities against the Islamic Republic”, according to her lawyer.

Lawyer Hojjat Kermani told a local newspaper that Zaghari had also been banned from leaving the country for one year.

“Nazanin Zaghari was sentenced to one year in prison and a one-year ban from leaving the country on charges of propaganda against the Islamic Republic,” he was quoted as saying.

Kermani said his client will appeal against the sentence.

Nazanin was first arrested in April 2016 at Tehran's international airport after visiting her family in Iran. She was working for the Thomson Reuters Foundation at that time.

Following a legal trial, she was sent to Tehran's Evin Prison, where she spent the next four years until her transfer to house arrest in March last year amidst COVID-19 outbreak in Iran.

In September last year, fresh charges were filed against her, calling for a new trial.

Last month, her house arrest orders were lifted, but the fresh charges still loomed, ruling out the possibility of her return to London and reunion with her family there.

This high-profile case has over the past five years led to a deep diplomatic standoff between London and Tehran and drawn widespread condemnation worldwide.

Iran, however, maintains that the due legal processes have been followed in her case.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, speaking to reporters on Monday, termed the sentence "wrong".

"I don't think it's right at all that Nazanin should be sentenced to any more time in jail. I think that it was wrong," he said.