THE BRITISH PRIME minister Theresa May has raised concerns with Iran’s president over several cases involving dual British-Iranian nationals, including an imprisoned mother.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 37, was arrested at Tehran airport on 3 April as she prepared to return to Britain with her daughter after visiting family in Iran.
Her two-year-old daughter had her British passport taken away and is staying in Iran with Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s parents but is unable to leave the country.
Overthrow the regime
The dual citizen is being accused of trying to overthrow the Iranian government.
The BBC reports that May “raised concerns” about the imprisoned mother during a phone call with Hassan Rouhani.
Iran does not recognise dual citizenship meaning Zaghari-Ratcliffe will be considered an Iranian.
According to a statement from the Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was “identified and arrested after massive intelligence operations” as one of “the heads of foreign-linked hostile networks”.
Criminal activity
She was alleged to have conducted “various missions… leading her criminal activities under the direction of media and intelligence services of foreign governments”.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe is being held in a furnished room in a prison in the southeastern city of Kerman, it added.
Her husband Richard Ratcliffe said his wife had been held in solitary confinement for 45 days, and scoffed at the charges levelled against her.
He said he believes his wife and child are being used as a “political bargaining chip”.
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