UK says charity worker's new Iran trial is 'unacceptable'

Britain hit out at the Iranian government on Sunday, branding the fresh trial for UK national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe on propaganda charges "unacceptable."

The British-Iranian charity worker appeared in court in Tehran earlier in the day, a week after she finished serving five years at Iran's notorious Evin prison after a widely disputed conviction for spying.

The charges raise questions about when she will be allowed to return home to her family. Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, said her detention had "the potential to drag on and on."

What has the British government said?

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said it was "unacceptable and unjustifiable" that Iranian authorities have pushed ahead with a second "wholly arbitrary" case.

He said Iran had "deliberately put her through a cruel and inhumane ordeal," adding that the 42-year-old "must be allowed to return to her family in the UK without delay."

Zaghari-Ratcliffe's lawyer, Hojjat Kermani, said the charges were linked to his client's participation in a rally outside the Iranian embassy in London in 2009.

He said the atmosphere at the hearing had been calm and he expected the former Thomson Reuters Foundation employee to be acquitted.

A verdict is expected within the next seven days.

What was the first trial about?

In April 2016, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in Tehran and later convicted of plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment and espionage.

Her family and employer, a charity that operates independently of the media company Thomson Reuters and its global news agency, deny the charge.

The latest twist in Zaghari-Ratcliffe's case comes as Britain and Iran negotiate a long-running dispute over a debt of about £400 million (€466 million; $557 million) owed to Tehran by London.

Her attorneys believe that she is being used as a bargaining chip to extract concessions from the British government.

Ratcliffe, who for years has campaigned vocally for his wife’s release, has also said that Iran is holding Zaghari-Ratcliffe as "collateral" in the dispute.

What have human rights groups said?

Several human rights groups have also been lobbying for the mother-of-one to be freed.

"One trumped-up case against Nazanin was bad enough — a second one is an act of cruelty," said Amnesty International's UK director, Kate Allen.

Iranian officials released Zaghari-Ratcliffe from jail last March because of the coronavirus pandemic, but she served the rest of her sentence under house arrest with an ankle tag.

The human rights charity Redress warned on Friday that she is suffering from mental health problems stemming from hours of interrogation and solitary confinement.

The charity's researchers completed their report in February, toward the end of Zaghari-Ratcliffe's sentence, after interviewing doctors during her house arrest.

Redress called the findings "highly consistent" with her allegations of torture and ill treatment at the hands of the Iranian authorities.

jf/rs (AP, AFP, Reuters)