British Prime Minister expresses concern over sentence of Aras Amiri, student imprisoned in Iran

British Prime Minister Theresa May said she was "deeply concerned" by the Islamic Republic's jailing of a member of the British Council.

According to Reuters, the British Prime Minister said he was "shocked" to hear the news, saying the convicted person "worked for a legal firm whose aim was to improve relations between the two countries."

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, in response to the ten-year prison sentence, described the move as "deeply worrying".

Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said on Monday, May 13, that the person who was "responsible for the Iran desk at the British Council," known as the "British Council," has been sentenced to ten years in prison.

A few hours after this news was published, the Guardian website wrote that this person was "Aras Amiri," a 33-year-old student who was arrested by the Islamic Republic last year.

Aras Amiri had traveled to Iran many times before, but the last time he went to Iran to visit his sick grandmother, he was arrested by Ministry of Intelligence agents five days after his arrival in March 2017.

Shortly after, this Iranian student at Kingston University in the UK, who had been transferred to Evin Prison after being arrested, was released from prison in 2018 after posting a bail of 500 million Tomans.

But then he was arrested again in September 2018, and no news has been released about him so far.

Source: Voice of America