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dpa
London
A British-Iranian woman imprisoned in Iran, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, has lost her latest appeal, meaning she could be sent back to prison “at any time,” her local member of parliament has said.
Labour MP Tulip Siddiq said Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s sentence of one year plus a one-year travel ban has been “upheld with no court hearing”.
The Hampstead and Kilburn MP has urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Government to intervene in the case.
Siddiq said: “This is yet another piece of devastating news for my constituent, her family and the millions around the world who care about her. For Nazanin to face a return to prison after the ordeal she’s been through is nothing short of a catastrophe.
“It seems that every time we dare to hope that Nazanin might soon be free, there is another dreadful setback that puts freedom out of sight. Whatever the prime minister has been doing to free Nazanin is clearly not working.
“It’s time for the UK government to pay the debt we owe to Iran, stand up to their despicable hostage taking and finally get Nazanin home.”
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian dual national, has been in custody in the country since 2016 after being accused of plotting to overthrow the government.
She was taking her daughter Gabriella to see her family when she was arrested and was sentenced to five years in prison shortly afterwards, spending four years in Evin Prison.
She spent the final year of her sentence under house arrest in Tehran, but after her release this year she was then convicted of “spreading propaganda against the regime”.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe and her family have reportedly been told by Iranian authorities that she is being detained because of the UK’s failure to pay an outstanding 400 million pound debt to Iran.
She is one of several people with British or dual-British nationality detained in Iran.
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17/10/2021
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