UK mum loses appeal and jailed for five years by Iran over ‘coup’

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Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was sentenced to five years in jail in Iran

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was sentenced to five years in jail in the Middle Eastern country for unspecified charges relating to national security.

The 38-year-old was arrested by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards at Imam Khomeini airport in Tehran last April.

She had been about to return to her husband in the UK after visiting her family.

This is politics that it is unfair on my family to be involved in

Mr Ratcliffe

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has dual British-Iranian citizenship, was accused of trying to organise a “soft overthrow” of the Islamic republic – a claim her husband, Richard, denies.

After her arrest she was taken to Kerman, in the south of the country, where she was held secretly before being transferred to Evin prison, in Tehran.

The couple’s two-year-old daughter Gabriella is still in Iran after her passport was seized.

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The couple's two-year-old daughter is still in Iran

Mr Ratcliffe, of Hampstead, north-west London, has called his wife’s detention “a punishment without a crime”.

In a letter to Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani this month, Mr Ratcliffe said he had been “reduced to parenting by Skype”. He added: “I have stated publicly I regard my wife and daughter as being held by Iranian factions for other agendas, as bargaining chips for international and domestic politics, inventing lies to protect economic interests.

“This is politics that it is unfair on my family to be involved in. It is a politics for which my family has paid a heavy enough price.

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Mr Ratcliffe has called his wife's detention "a punishment without a crime"

“I have not seen my daughter or wife for 10 months.

“This is a very long time not to be able to see how they are.”

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe is one of a number of Iranian dual nationals arrested in recent years.

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Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe is one of a number of Iranian dual nationals arrested in recent years

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Tue, June 16, 2009

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Last week, Foreign Office minister Tobias Ellwood met her family at the British Embassy in Tehran.

Although the exact charges have never been specified, Iranian authorities have implied that her arrest was linked to her work with the BBC’s international development arm.

The broadcaster is watched illegally by many Iranian citizens.

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