The Iranian-British Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, at the heart of sharp tensions between London and the Islamic Republic, appeared Sunday, March 14 in Tehran, in a new trial of which she is now awaiting the verdict, a few days after having finished serving a five years in prison.
Mme Zaghari-Ratcliffe “Must be allowed to return to his family in the UK without delay”, reacted the head of the British diplomacy Dominic Raab, calling it“Unacceptable” this new trial, according to him, “Totally arbitrary”.
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Deliberated by March 30
42-year-old Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is being sued for “Propaganda against the system [politique de la République islamique], for participating in a rally outside the Iranian Embassy in London in 2009 ”, said his lawyer, Hojjat Kermani. Sunday’s hearing proceeded “In a very calm and very good atmosphere, in the presence of my client, in front of the 15e Chamber of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran “said Me Kermani to AFP. This is the resumption of a second legal procedure started in October 2017 and adjourned to November 2020.
Me Kermani said he pleaded and the judgment was reserved. According to the law, the court has seven working days to make known its decision. With many public holidays to come around the Iranian New Year (March 21), this theoretically leaves the court until March 30 to make its decision known, but time delays are common in the Iranian justice system.
Fears of placement in “indefinite detention”
According to her support committee, the 40-year-old was allowed to make a statement at the hearing. She “Made it clear that she did not accept charges [retenues contre elle] and noted that all charges and evidence presented [par le ministère public] had already been so during his trial in 2016 “, and that she had “Already been tried and sentenced” for these charges, writes the Free Nazanin campaign (“Free Nazanin”) in a press release.
“In view of the elements presented by the defense (…) and since my client also served her previous sentence, I hope she will be acquitted ”said Me Kermani. But the support committee is less optimistic, judging that “Nazanin’s future remains uncertain and that she is, in fact, in indefinite detention”.
Project manager for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, philanthropic arm of the news agency of the same name, Mme Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in 2016 at Tehran airport after visiting her family. Accused of having plotted to overthrow the Islamic Republic, which she fiercely denies, this binational was sentenced to five years in prison. With hopes of release in disappointment, she was forced to serve her sentence to the end.
Political game
Under house arrest with her parents in Tehran after being allowed out of prison due to the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, she has not worn an electronic bracelet since March 7. His passport having been confiscated, he is, however, prohibited from leaving Iran until further notice.
“The five-year ordeal of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe should have ended last week”, wrote the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a statement. “Instead, this new trial and this new postponement in the outcome [de ses démêlés avec la justice iranienne] are a deliberate maneuver to prolong his ordeal and his sufferings ”, adds the Foundation, for whom the forty-something, mother of a six-year-old girl, “Is the innocent victim of a political conflict”.
For her husband, Mme Zaghari-Ratcliffe is the“Hostage” of a sinister political game concerning an old debt contracted by the United Kingdom within the framework of an arms contract with Iran before the Islamic revolution of 1979, and never honored by London.
On Friday, the British NGO Redress ruled in a report that Mr.me Zaghari-Ratcliffe suffered from severe post-traumatic stress disorder after suffering ” bad treatments “ and that it should therefore be recognized by London as “Victim of torture”. Iranian authorities have always denied that she was mistreated.
Tehran, which does not recognize dual nationality, has consistently denied the UK consular access to Mr.me Zaghari-Ratcliffe while in prison and dismisses London’s calls for her release as interference in her internal affairs.
