Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe Summoned to Revolutionary Court Again with New Indictment

Six months before the end of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s imprisonment, Branch 15 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court has issued a new indictment against her. The new indictment means new charges from the Revolutionary Court against this Iranian-British dual national citizen.

The issue of expediting Nazanin Zaghari’s release has been raised by British media. Now, the Iranian judiciary, by filing new charges against Zaghari, has summoned her to Branch 15 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court and served a new indictment against her.

The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting Agency published the news of filing a new indictment against Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe on Tuesday, September 18 (September 8).

According to this report, the Islamic Revolutionary Court summoned Nazanin Zaghari and her lawyer and served them with the new case indictment.

The content of the new charge brought by the Iranian judiciary against this Iranian-British citizen is unclear. It is said that Nazanin Zaghari’s lawyer is currently reviewing the new indictment case file against her client.

The Issue of Britain’s Debt to Iran

The Guardian newspaper on September 4 published a report quoting Ben Wallace, British Defense Minister, about Britain’s renewed efforts to secure Nazanin Zaghari’s release.

It has been stated that Ben Wallace, in a letter addressed to the lawyers of the Zaghari-Ratcliffe family, told them that Britain, by accepting payment of its debt to Iran, would work to expedite Nazanin Zaghari’s release.

Britain’s debt to Iran dates back to before the Islamic Revolution. The Islamic Republic of Iran claims that Britain owes Iran 400 million pounds for the order of Chieftain tanks by the Pahlavi government. Britain’s debt to Iran has been one of the controversial issues in the relations between the two countries.

Now, Said Khatibzadeh, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, has claimed that the issue of Britain paying its debt to Iran has nothing to do with Nazanin Zaghari’s release.

Khatibzadeh said: “The English government has a definite 40-year-old debt to Iran and it makes no difference whether this debt is acknowledged by an English government official or not.” He claimed that Iran’s judiciary “operates independently.”

The discussion of Nazanin Zaghari’s release in exchange for Britain’s payment of its debt to Iran was first raised last year in March by Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s Foreign Minister.

Zarif, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, referred to the issue of prisoner exchange and spoke of Nazanin Zaghari’s release in exchange for Britain’s payment of its debt to Iran.

Iran’s Foreign Minister said that the proposal for Nazanin Zaghari’s release in exchange for payment of Britain’s 400 million pound debt to Iran was first raised by Philip Hammond, British Foreign Secretary.

It was planned that Mohammad Javad Zarif, after Britain’s payment of its debt to Iran, would work to secure Nazanin Zaghari’s release.

Iran’s Foreign Minister, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, referred to the end of Philip Hammond’s tenure in July 2016, and by raising this issue, gave validity to this proposal once again.

Now, with the filing of new charges against Nazanin Zaghari, and six months before the end of her prison sentence, and given Khatibzadeh’s statements, it appears that the Islamic Republic has changed its position regarding this Iranian-British citizen.

Nazanin Zaghari, an employee of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested at Tehran airport in April 2016 upon returning from a family trip and was then sentenced to five years in prison on charges of attempting “regime change” and “espionage.” She holds dual nationality but the Iranian government does not recognize dual nationality.

Zaghari has been on leave with her family since March 19 last year due to coronavirus, but because of an electronic tag she is not allowed to stay more than three hundred meters away from her home.

Source: DW