Tehran denies British-Iranian aid worker could be released soon

22 Dec, 2017 10:43 / Updated 7 years ago

Iran’s Justice Ministry confirmed on Friday that authorities have opened a new case against British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, and denied she might soon be released, Reuters said. Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested in April 2016 at a Tehran airport as she was heading back to Britain with her two-year-old daughter after a family visit. She has been sentenced to five years in jail after being convicted of “plotting to overthrow Iran’s clerical establishment.” The charge is denied by her family and the foundation. British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson traveled to Iran this month to lobby for her release. The Justice Department in Tehran province also denied reports of “a swap deal.”