British-Iranian aid worker faces new charge in Iran as previous 5-year sentence ends

The five-year sentence for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian aid worker who has been held in Iran on spying charges since 2016, has ended, but she has been summoned to court on another charge, according to her lawyer.

Al Jazeera reports that Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s lawyer, Hojjat Kermani, told local media that although her sentence has ended, she has been called to court on another charge. Kermani said that she has been accused of “propaganda against the system” for gathering outside Iran’s London embassy and giving an interview to BBC Persian regarding disputed election results in 2009.

She is set to appear in court on March 14.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was imprisoned in 2016 while visiting family in Iran with her young daughter and was accused of being a spy with plans to overthrow the Iranian government, a charge she has denied.

At the time of her arrest, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was a project manager for Reuters’s charity arm the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Al Jazeera notes that Zaghari-Ratcliffe was taken out of prison in March 2020 and put into house arrest due to the coronavirus pandemic.

British foreign secretary Dominic Raab called for Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s release on Twitter.

“We welcome the removal of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s ankle tag, but Iran’s continued treatment of her is intolerable. She must be allowed to return to the UK as soon as possible to be reunited with her family,” Raab wrote on Twitter.

We welcome the removal of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s ankle tag, but Iran’s continued treatment of her is intolerable. She must be allowed to return to the UK as soon as possible to be reunited with her family

— Dominic Raab (@DominicRaab) March 7, 2021

Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s imprisonment has caused a rift between the U.K. and Iran, Al Jazeera notes, with British officials repeatedly calling for her release.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband Richard Ratcliffe has accused the Iranian government of holding her as part of a decades long debt the British government owes Iran, Al Jazeera reports. A former shah of Iran purchased tanks from Britain that would now be worth over $550 million that were never delivered.

The Iranian government denies the two issues are related.