UK aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe served a five-year prison sentence after being convicted of plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment in Iran – now she has been back in court to fight a charge of propaganda against the system. /AFP
The trial of UK aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was held on Saturday in Iran, her lawyer Hojjat Kermani has revealed.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested at a Tehran airport in April 2016 and later convicted of plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment.
She served most of her five-year sentence in Iran's Evin prison and was released last March but remained under house arrest and hasn't been allowed to leave the country.
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She has now returned to court to fight the propaganda charge, with her family and employer appealing to the UK government to help them to overturn her sentence.
Last Sunday, Zaghari-Ratcliffe's ankle tag was removed and her family are now hopeful she will be found not guilty and be allowed to return home as they await the verdict.
"Her trial was held at branch 15 of the Revolutionary court. Her charge is propaganda against the system," Kermani said, adding that she "was fine and calm at the court session.
"The trial was held in a calm atmosphere," continued Kermani. "The final defense was taken. Legally, the court should announce the verdict in a week but it is up to the judge. I am very hopeful that she will be acquitted."
Asked whether Zaghari-Ratcliffe would be allowed to leave the country, Kermani said: "I don't know about her travel ban situation."
Zaghari-Ratcliffe's husband Richard has spent the last five years fighting for her to be returned to the UK but his efforts so far have been unsuccessful. /AFP
UK Foreign Minister Dominic Raab welcomed the removal of the ankle tag but said Iran continued to put Zaghari-Ratcliffe and her family through a "cruel and an intolerable ordeal."
Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday to demand that she be allowed to return to her family.
During the call, Rouhani also raised the issue of a historic $556 million debt Iran claims the UK owes the country as a result of a 1970s arms deal.