Iran frees Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe but sets further court date

over 4 years in The Irish Times

A British-Iranian woman detained in Iran for nearly five years has had her ankle tag removed but still has to appear before an Iranian court, according to her constituency MP.
British-Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been held since 2016, when she was sentenced to five years in prison over allegations, which she strongly denies, of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government.
The 42-year-old’s family had been waiting to hear news of her fate as Sunday marked the end of her sentence.
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been out of prison since last spring due to the coronavirus crisis, but has been held under house arrest at her parents’ house in Tehran.
Her constituency MP, Tulip Siddiq, said she has been in touch with Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s family, who said she has had her ankle tag removed but has been summoned to court next week.
Her lawyer Hojjat Kermani told Iranian website Emtedad on Sunday, after her five-year prison sentence for plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment.
“She was pardoned by Iran’s Supreme Leader last year, but spent the last year of her term under house arrest with electronic shackles tied to her feet. Now they’re cast off,” Kermani told the website. “She has been freed.”
Iran’s judiciary officials have yet to comment about the release. It was not immediately clear whether she was allowed to leave Iran. Kermani was quoted as saying that “a hearing for Zaghari’s second case has been scheduled at branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran” according to the website.
British foreign minister Dominic Raab says he welcomes the removal of her ankle tag but Iran’s continued treatment of her is intolerable
Ms Zaghari- Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested at a Tehran airport in April 2016 as she prepared to head back to Britain with her daughter after a family visit.
She was later sentenced to five years in jail after being convicted of plotting to overthrow Iran’s clerical establishment.
Her family and the foundation, a charity that operates independently of media firm Thomson Reuters and its news subsidiary Reuters, deny the charge. She was released from jail in March last year and put under house arrest in Tehran in response to concerns about the spread of Covid-19 in Iran’s prisons, but her movements were restricted and she was barred from leaving the country. –PA/Reuters

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