Iran released British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe on Sunday. Shortly after the news of her release, it was announced that the woman had received another summons to appear in court.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 43, was convicted five years ago of espionage and plotting to overthrow the Iranian regime.
The project manager at the Thomson Reuters charity was allowed to leave prison last year due to concerns about the coronavirus outbreak in Iran. The woman was placed under house arrest and had to wear an ankle bracelet. According to Amnesty International for Human Rights, she was not allowed to go more than 300 meters from her parents’ house.
British MP Tulip Siddiq said on Sunday that she spoke to Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s family and told her to take off her anklets, but she was referred to court again. A hearing is scheduled for next week in Tehran’s court.
According to the woman’s lawyer, this is a charge of involvement in propaganda activities against Iran. The British government has called on Zaghari-Ratcliffe to return home as soon as possible, and has described the treatment of women in Iran as “intolerable”.
He was arrested after a family visit
Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in 2016 when she wanted to leave Iran with her then-two-year-old daughter after a family visit. In the same year she was found guilty.
Her family, the foundation, and the United Kingdom have long denied the allegations. According to Amnesty International’s UK director, Kate Allen, Zaghari Ratcliffe was a “prisoner of conscience” who was “convicted” after an unfair trial “and should never have been imprisoned.
It is not known what Zaghary-Ratcliffe looked like. Her health is said to have deteriorated while in Evin Prison.
