Nazanin to Face New Trial

Iranian authorities have revived an old case against Iranian-British dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been held in Iran for close to four and a half years.  She is expected to face trial on Sunday, September 13, though the charges against her have not been officially announced. Her husband has demanded the British government do everything in its power to attend the hearing. 

In an unexpected  — and for Zaghari-Ratcliffe and her family, terrifying —  development on September 7, agents from the Revolutionary Guards arrived at her parents’ house, where she has been confined since her temporary release from prison in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. The agents informed her she was due to meet with Judge Abolghasem Salavati at the revolutionary court, but arrived at the house without any documentation, sparking fears that it was a trick and that the agents would return her to prison. Since being on temporary leave, she has been forced to wear an ankle tag and has not able to go more than 300 meters from the house, so Zaghari-Ratcliffe sought clarification from the prosecutor’s office that she could leave the premises and that she was due to report at the court.

The UK Must Act

Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband Richard Ratcliffe has urged the British government to demand one of its representatives be present at the hearing. The Foreign Office has told her family and the media that it will “seek to attend” the trial. 

The hearing will be the first time Zaghari-Ratcliffe has appeared in court since the United Kingdom gave her diplomatic protection in March 2019, which effectively launched a legal case against the Islamic Republic.

“I will always be grateful to the former Foreign Secretary @Jeremy_Hunt for granting Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe diplomatic protection. But for this to mean anything, the Government must now demand access to her and be present at her new court case,” tweeted UK Labour member of parliament Tulip Siddiq, who represents the Ratcliffes’ constituency.

Although the newly-announced second charge against Zaghari-Ratcliffe has not been officially announced, Judge Salavati, who has presided over her cases throughout, informed her she faces allegations of "spreading propaganda against the regime," a charge that had previously been leveled at her in October 2017 and later linked to comments by Boris Johnson, who was the UK's foreign secretary at the time. The case was dropped after Johnson traveled to Iran in December 2017, but then revived in May 2018. 

According to Richard Ratcliffe, the second case against his wife is illegal. The case, which he described as a “rehash,” has been put together with the same material used as evidence that had been presented as part of her previous conviction, a practice that is banned under Iranian law. Ratcliffe said in the past, the evidence has changed from the point at which the lawyer has been given the case to look over and the trial, so the charges will only be clear on Sunday when Nazanin appears in court. 

The newest development followed a recent exchange between the Press TV Programs Twitter account and supporters of Zaghari-Ratcliffe. #FreeNazanin campaigners expressed concerns that Iran's recent targeting of UK officials meant it was stepping up its policy of taking hostages as a diplomatic tool. This resulted in hostile tweets from Press TV Programs and, and, on September 7, the Iranian ambassador to the UK blocked the @FreeNazanin account, the first time it had done so in four and a half years.

Richard Ratcliffe has repeatedly told the international and UK media that the continued detention of his wife is political. “This is definitely a new stage in a long-running political game,” Ratcliffe told the BBC on September 9. “The very first thing the British government needs to do is to get to attend the trial and to assert that she’s British.” 

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested at Imam Khomeini Airport in Tehran in August 2016 as she prepared to return to London after visiting her family. She was found guilty of espionage based on false evidence and sentenced to five years in prison. Her daughter Gabriella lived with her parents until October 2019, when she returned to the UK to begin school. 

Ratcliffe has stated that his wife is being held over a £450 million debt the UK owes to Iran since the 1970s when an arms deal between the two countries was canceled. The debt has not been paid because it accrued when Iran was under sanctions. Richard Ratcliffe has indicated that Nazanin's continued incarceration is a way for the Iranian regime to send a message to other countries about the dangers of adhering to sanctions.

"This case threatens to prolong her suffering indefinitely, while she already suffers from severe depression and post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of having been held in inhumane conditions that amount to torture under international law," said Eva Sanchis of Redress, the UK-based lawyers representing Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Richard Ratcliffe. 

Richard Ratcliffe has repeatedly spoken of the stress Nazanin has suffered throughout her ordeal. He says she was relieved more than anything when she was able to go back to her parents' house following her meeting with Judge Salavati rather than being put behind bars again.