New Case Against Nazanin Zaghari; Charges are 'Old'

The campaign for the freedom of Nazanin Zaghari, an Iranian-British citizen imprisoned in Iran, reported that Ms. Zaghari was suddenly taken to Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court on Saturday, November 4, without the presence of her lawyer, where the same previous charges were communicated to her in the form of a new case. The campaign added that she has been threatened with the possibility of her punishment being doubled. It emphasized that re-punishing her for the same previous charges is an 'illegal' act. The campaign also noted that the opening of a new case against Ms. Zaghari coincided with erroneous statements made by Boris Johnson, the British Foreign Secretary, on November 2, who condemned Ms. Zaghari's imprisonment and stated that she had been teaching journalism; a claim that has been completely denied by her and her employer, the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Ms. Zaghari, who traveled to Iran to visit her family during the Nowruz holidays, was arrested on April 3, 2016, while trying to leave Iran and was sentenced to five years in prison on charges such as propaganda against the regime. Following the initial ruling, Ms. Zaghari's husband, Richard Ratcliffe, announced in October of this year that she has been accused of new crimes that could add 16 years to her sentence. Meanwhile, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, the public prosecutor of Tehran, detailed the new charges against Ms. Zaghari on October 17, introducing her as 'responsible for training online journalists for BBC Persian' and claiming that she was 'working to attract and train individuals for propaganda activities against Iran.' According to this judicial official, 'the use of fake emails, complex and lengthy passwords, password storage, and the use of encryption software for content and information were among the topics covered in this training.' The charges against Nazanin Zaghari were raised while the director of the BBC World Service had previously stated that she had never collaborated with the Persian section of this media outlet. In this context, United Nations human rights experts expressed 'serious' concern over the new charges against Ms. Zaghari on October 19 and called on Iran to immediately release this Iranian-British citizen from prison. UN human rights experts had previously called for her release several times, and a group advocating against arbitrary detention had also officially requested the immediate release of this Iranian-British citizen. In this regard, Boris Johnson condemned Zaghari's imprisonment; the Thomson Reuters Foundation's amendment, and UN human rights experts: the new charges against Nazanin Zaghari are deeply concerning.