UK calls Iran regime retrial against UK citizen detained five years ago “unacceptable”

British Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe He appeared this Sunday before Tehran’s Revolutionary Court to face a new trial for propaganda against the country’s theocratic system.

Her lawyer, Hoyat Kermaní, said he had made the “legal defense” of his client in Section 15 of the tribunal and had “high hopes that she will be acquitted” because of the evidence provided and the fact that she had already served. a prior sentence of five years in prison. “The trial took place in a calm environment with the presence of my client,” the lawyer told local media. Emtedadnews, who posted the statements on his Twitter account.

For his part, the British Foreign Minister, Dominic Raab, called this Sunday “unacceptable“Let Iran go ahead with a second “totally arbitrary” case. In a statement, the British foreign minister hinted at Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s new appearance on Sunday before Tehran’s Revolutionary Court to face a new trial for propaganda against the country’s theocratic system.

The minister noted that the Iranian government has forced the woman to “deliberately undergo cruel and inhuman ordeal” and added that “she must be allowed to return with her family to the UK without further delay”. From the London government, Raab assured that they continued to “do everything possible to support him”.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe is now accused of “propaganda activities against the system” for participating in a demonstration outside the Iranian embassy in London in 2009, on the occasion of protests against the re-election of ultra-conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ; and to give an interview to the Persian service of the BBC, vilified by Tehran. EFE

The 42-year-old Thomson Reuters Foundation employee was arrested in 2016 during a family visit to Tehran and sentenced to five years in prison for crimes against state security. That sentence ended last Sunday, when the ankle brace with which he was telematically controlled for the past year was removed, which he was placed under house arrest like many other prisoners due to the covid pandemic. 19.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson demanded last Wednesday from Iranian President Hasan Rohaní the “immediate release” of Zaghari-Ratcliffe. Johnson said “that Although the removal of the ankle brace has been welcomed, his continued detention remains totally unacceptable and he should be allowed to return to his family in the UK.“.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been implicated in the troubled London-Tehran relationship, which has detained dozens of foreigners or Iranians with dual citizenship, usually accused of spying to put pressure on other countries and obtain concessions or prisoner exchanges.

It was in fact assumed that his arrest was linked to a debt the UK owed Iran for over 40 years, when Shah Mohamad Reza Pahlaví bought 1,500 tanks worth £ 400million which did not ‘have never been delivered.

A week ago, Amnesty International (AI) condemned in a tweet that the retrial which took place today is “yet another example of the Iranian authorities playing cruel political games with the life of Nazanin”.

(With information from EFE)