Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been sentenced to another year in prison in Iran after she and her family were preparing for her to come home last month, and she was released from house arrest and had had her ankle tag removed.
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Now, the Iranian Revolutionary court has sentenced her on new charges of ‘propaganda activities against the regime’. She is banned from leaving the country for one year, according to her lawyer Hojjat Kermani.
Is Nazanin going to prison?
BBC correspondent Caroline Hawley tweeted that her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, says 'she's not been summoned to prison at this point. He said the verdict was a really bad sign and they will appeal.’
Richard also told the BBC the verdict was ‘clearly a negotiating tactic’ by the Iranian authorities - who are in the middle of discussions to revive the country's nuclear deal.
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Nazanin, a charity worker, has already endured a five year nightmare after she was arrested at Tehran airport in Iran while taking her daughter Gabriella – who was 22-months old at the time - to see her parents in April 2016.
Last month, she completed her five-year sentence for spurious charges of espionage in Iran and had her ankle tag removed, releasing her from house arrest. She has always denied the charges. Richard has long suspected that she is a pawn in a historic geopolitical struggle and her imprisonment a result of an unpaid debt owed by Britain to Iran.
Last month, Richard told Grazia how they wanted to try for another baby as soon as she was home. This devastating news will once again risk scuppering their plans to grow their family.
‘She always wanted to come back and have another baby, having lost out on Gabriella’s childhood,’ he said. ‘And obviously, you know, she was taken age 37, she's now 42. Those are quite critical years to lose if you're trying for a baby.’
In the summer, she had her fertility tested while at her parents’ house in Tehran, where she has been staying on house arrest. ‘Her fertility was very low. She got very, very upset,’ Richard said. The results of the ovarian reserve test showed she had less than 15% chance of having another child.
In October 2019, Richard, who has been in London the entire time - unable to visit to Iran, was reunited with Gabriella for the first time since April 2016, after she spent three-and-a-half years living with her maternal grandparents in Iran, visiting Nazanin in prison.
Free Nazanin
Many are searching for Free Nazanin, the campaign group set up by Richard to help raise awareness about her plight and lobby the UK government to help get her back. The petition calls on Boris Johnson to use his powers and intervene. To sign the petition visit change.org/p/free-nazanin-ratcliffe
Read More: Richard Ratcliffe To His Wife Nazanin: ‘Being Apart Hasn’t Diminished Our Love’