Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe to stand trial on fresh charges in Iran next week

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian woman sentenced to five years imprisonment in Iran in 2016, has been told she will stand trial on fresh charges next Monday.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was released to house arrest in March due to the coronavirus outbreak, was also told she would be returned to Evin prison after the hearing.

The move comes a day after it emerged that a UK court hearing on a debt owed to Iran had been postponed for six months. It was due to start on 3 November.

Both countries formally deny there is any connection between the debt case and the retention of British-Iranian dual nationals in Tehran jails, but officials privately acknowledge that the two issues have been linked. British sources said the postponement was sought by the Iranian legal team, but that has not been confirmed.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been told she will face Abolqasem Salavati, a hardline judge who has been subjected to sanctions by the EU and the US.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s five-year sentence is due to expire next spring, but the fresh charges open the possibility of years more in jail.

(April 3, 2016)  Arrest in Tehran

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is arrested at Imam Khomeini airport as she is trying to return to Britain after a holiday visiting family with her daughter, Gabriella.

(July 12, 2016)  Release campaign begins

Her husband, Richard Radcliffe, delivers a letter to David Cameron in 10 Downing Street, demanding the government do more for her release.

(September 9, 2016)  Sentenced

She is sentenced to five years in jail. Her husband says the exact charges are still being kept a secret.

(November 21, 2016)  Hunger strike

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's health deteriorates after she spends several days on hunger strike in protest at her imprisonment.

(April 24, 2017)  Appeal fails

Iran’s supreme court upholds her conviction.

(November 1, 2017)  Boris Johnson intervenes

Boris Johnson, then Foreign Secretary, tells a parliamentary select committee "When we look at what [she] was doing, she was simply teaching people journalism". Four days after his comments, Zaghari-Ratcliffe is returned to court, where his statement is cited in evidence against her. Her employers, the Thomson Reuters Foundation, deny that she has ever trained journalists, and her family maintain she was in Iran on holiday. Johnson is eventually forced to apologise for the "distress and anguish" his comments cause the family.

(November 12, 2017)  Health concerns

Her husband reveals that Zaghari-Ratcliffe has fears for her health after lumps had been found in her breasts that required an ultrasound scan, and that she was now “on the verge of a nervous breakdown”.

(August 3, 2018)  Hunt meets husband

New Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt meets with Richard Ratcliffe, and pledges "We will do everything we can to bring her home."

(August 23, 2018)  Temporary release

She is granted a temporary three-day release from prison.

(January 14, 2019)  Hunger strike

Zaghari-Ratcliffe is on hunger strike again, in protest at the withdrawal of her medical care.

(March 8, 2019)  Diplomatic protection

The foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, takes the unusual step of granting her diplomatic protection – a move that raises her case from a consular matter to the level of a dispute between the two states.

(May 17, 2019) Travel warning

The UK upgrades its travel advice to British-Iranian dual nationals, for the first time advising against all travel to Iran. The advice also urges Iranian nationals living in the UK to exercise caution if they decide to travel to Iran.

(June 15, 2019) Hunger strike in London

Richard Ratcliffe joins his wife in a new hunger strike campaign. He fasts outside the Iranian embassy in London as she begins a third hunger strike protest in prison.

(June 29, 2019)  Hunger strike ends

Zaghari-Ratcliffe ends her hunger strike by eating some breakfast. Her husband also ends his strike outside the embassy.

(July 17, 2019)  Moved to mental health ward

According to her husband, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was moved from Evin prison to the mental ward of Imam Khomeini hospital, where Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have prevented relatives from contacting her.

(October 11, 2019) Daughter returns to London

Zaghari-Ratcliffe's five year old daughter Gabriella, who has lived with her grandparents in Tehran and regularly visited her mother in jail over the last three years, returns to London in order to start school.

(March 17, 2020)  Temporary release

Amid the threat of the coronavirus pandemic, she is temporarily released from prison, but will be required to wear an ankle brace and not move more than 300 metres from her parents’ home.

(September 8, 2020) New charges

Iranian state media reports that she will appear in court to face new and unspecified charges. In the end, a weekend court appearance on a new charge of waging propaganda against the state that could leave her incarcerated for another 10 years is postponed without warning, leading Zaghari-Ratcliffe to say "People should not underestimate the level of stress. People tell me to calm down. You don’t understand what it is like. Nothing is calm."

(October 28, 2020)  Return to prison threatened

Zaghari-Ratcliffe is told she is to stand trial on fresh charges and will be returning to prison after the hearing.

On Tuesday her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, spoke to the UK foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, and called on the UK to assert its right to consular access so that British officials could attend the new trial and visit his wife.

Iran does not recognise dual national status. Raab assured Ratcliffe that the UK’s diplomatic push was ongoing and that the government did not judge it time to change strategy.

Ratcliffe said: “We disagreed on this. Seclusion of the victim, with bouts of conspicuous cruelty in the face of decisions to wait, are key pillars of hostage taking. Both must be challenged robustly if British citizens are going to be protected from hostage diplomacy by Iran or others.”

He added: “I do think that if she’s not home for Christmas, there’s every chance this could run for years. So I really hope there’s something we are not being told, as on the face of it the government’s response seems disastrous.[It’s] just extraordinary that they won’t change course.”

Ratcliffe said a court summons was delivered to his wife by “two very large IRGC [Revolutionary Guards] guards who came to her parents’ door. They told her that she should pack a bag with her for Monday, and should make sure she brings with her all her clothes and necessary medications, as she will be going back to prison after her court appearance.”

Tulip Siddiq, the MP for Hampstead and Kilburn where Zaghari-Ratcliffe lives, said: “Nazanin has once again been treated with utter contempt, and I am extremely concerned about her future and wellbeing. The fact that she has been told to pack a bag for prison ahead of her court hearing doesn’t fill me with confidence that this will be anything close to a fair trial.

“The timing of this development alongside the postponement of the court hearing about the UK’s historic debt to Iran raises serious concerns. I can only hope that there is work going on behind the scenes to resolve the debt quickly because we seem to be going in completely the wrong direction and Nazanin, as ever, is paying the price. The foreign secretary must assert the UK’s right to consular access and ensure that UK officials are present at Nazanin’s trial.”