Iranian court jails British-Iranian aid worker for five years – family

A British-Iranian mother has been jailed for five years in Iran on “secret charges”, her husband has said.

At a rally outside the Iranian embassy in London in June, Richard Ratcliffe said his wife was arrested as she prepared to return to Britain with the couple’s daughter Gabriella after visiting family in Iran.

There was no word on her sentence in Iranian state media.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe works for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the news agency’s charitable arm.

Iran does not recognise dual citizenship.

The Iranian authorities have yet to explain to Nazanin her crime.

Richard Ratcliffe said that his wife is being treated like a political football.

A British mother has been jailed in Iran for five years in what has been described as a “complete travesty of justice”.

He has not yet seen his wife in person since her arrest.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe told her husband she preferred to stay asleep dreaming rather than “wake up each morning and remember where I am”.

She said: “Do you understand what it is like to be a mother kept away from her child this long?” Now, any contact with her family in Iran and the United Kingdom is limited and controlled.

He says he learned of his wife’s sentence when she called him from prison.

“Why the Revolutionary Guard wishes to manoeuvre the judiciary to announce through me the sentence, but not the charges, I do not know”.

“Being held in this way is just outrageous”.

On Friday afternoon family were due to visit Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe who, according to her husband, had suffered risky weight loss, lost some of her hair and became virtually unable to walk since being imprisoned. She is weak and her hair is falling out, he said.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe with her husband and daughter.

He set up a petition to call for Prime Minister Theresa May to use her power and intervene in the situation.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe works for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, a charity organisation coordinating training programmes for journalists around the world.

“This is a very serious condemnation that comes without any charges or evidence being made public”, foundation CEO Monique Villa said in a statement.

He said: “One of the things that was good to hear in her voice was that she was angry, which I took as a sign that she was stronger than she might have been”.

“I am convinced of her innocence and reiterate that she had no dealings with Iran whatsoever in her professional capacity at the Thomson Reuters Foundation”.

“We continue to work very closely with Richard, the UK Foreign Office and the British authorities to find a resolution to this awful situation”, she added.

The Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary have both raised her case with their counterparts in Iran and will continue to do so.

A British-Iranian woman detained for months in Iran on suspicion of planning the “soft toppling” of the country’s government while traveling with her young daughter has been sentenced to five years in prison, her husband said Friday.