British-Iranian woman accused of bid to ‘overthrow regime’
British-Iranian woman accused of bid to ‘overthrow regime’ – rights Iran on Wednesday accused a British-Iranian woman arrested in April of seeking to …
rights Iran on Wednesday accused a British-Iranian woman arrested in April of seeking to overthrow the Tehran government, an allegation dismissed by her husband as “complete nonsense”.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, an employee of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was accused of being “involved in the soft overthrow of the Islamic republic through… her membership in foreign companies and institutions,” Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards said, quoted by the Mizan news agency.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 37, was arrested at Tehran airport on April 3 as she prepared to return to Britain with her daughter after visiting family in Iran, her husband Richard Ratcliffe said last week.
Iran does not recognise dual citizenship and, if put on trial, she will be considered an Iranian.
According to a Guards statement, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was “identified and arrested after massive intelligence operations” as one of “the heads of foreign-linked hostile networks”.
She was alleged to have conducted “various missions… leading her criminal activities under the direction of media and intelligence services of foreign governments”.
“Further investigations are being done and her case has been sent to Tehran for legal proceedings,” the statement added.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe is being held in a furnished room in a prison in the southeastern city of Kerman, it added.
Her husband, who last spoke to his wife on May 30 and has said she was held in solitary confinement for 45 days, on Wednesday scoffed at the charges levelled against her.
Iran Briefing | News Press Focus on Human Rights Violation by IRGC, Iran Human Rights