British-Iranian Aid Worker Released, But Summoned To Court Again

British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has had her ankle tag removed after her five-year prison sentence expired, but it remains unclear if she can leave Iran.

Iran’s semiofficial ISNA news agency said that Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been summoned to court again on March 13, dashing hopes for her immediate return home.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in a statement that Zaghari-Ratcliffe must be released immediately so she can return to her family in Britain.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was detained at Tehran airport after a family visit in 2016 and subsequently given a five-year sentence for plotting to overthrow Iran’s government.

Her family and the foundation deny the charge while Amnesty International denounced the proceedings as a “deeply unfair trial.”

Britain has demanded Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s release and that of other dual nationals imprisoned in Iran. Tehran does not recognize dual citizenship.

In November, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was notified in court of a fresh indictment of “spreading propaganda against the regime.”

She was temporarily released from the capital’s notorious Evin prison and placed under house arrest in March 2020 owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP