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Iran Releases British-Iranian Aid Worker from House Arrest but Court Summons
Looms

Reuters

   DUBAI - Iran has released British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin
   Zaghari-Ratcliffe from house arrest at the end of her five-year prison
   sentence, but she has been summoned to court again on another charge,
   her lawyer said on Sunday.

   Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters
   Foundation, was arrested at a Tehran airport in April 2016 and later
   convicted of plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment.

   Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who served out most of her sentence in Tehran's Evin
   prison, was released last March during the coronavirus pandemic and
   kept under house arrest, but her movements were restricted and she was
   barred from leaving the country.

   On Sunday the authorities removed her ankle tag.

   "She was pardoned by Iran's supreme leader last year, but spent the
   last year of her term under house arrest with electronic shackles tied
   to her feet. Now they're cast off," her lawyer Hojjat Kermani told an
   Iranian website. "She has been freed."

   Iran's judiciary was not immediately available to comment about the
   release. Her family and the foundation, a charity that operates
   independently of media firm Thomson Reuters and its news subsidiary
   Reuters, deny the charge.

   Kermani said a hearing for Zaghari-Ratcliffe's second case has been
   scheduled on March 14.

   "In this case, she is accused of propaganda against the Islamic
   Republic's system for participating in a rally in front of the Iranian
   Embassy in London in 2009 and giving interview to the BBC Persian TV
   channel at the same time," Kermani said.

   He said he hoped that "this case will be closed at this stage,
   considering the previous investigation."

   Mixed news

   Zaghari-Ratcliffe's husband told Sky News on Sunday she was "pleased"
   her ankle tag had been removed but said the news was "mixed" from Iran
   due to the court summons.

   "Richard Ratcliffe says Nazanin is 'pleased' the ankle tag is off
   #nazanin," Sky News reporter Lisa Holland said on Twitter. "Richard
   Ratcliffe has told me the news today is 'mixed'. The ankle tag is off
   but Nazanin has to appear in court again next Sunday in a second case."

   Ratcliffe did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

   British foreign minister Dominic Raab welcomed the removal of
   Zaghari-Ratcliffe's ankle tag but said Iran continued to put her and
   her family through a "cruel and an intolerable ordeal."

   "She must be released permanently so she can return to her family in
   the UK. We have relayed to the Iranian authorities in the strongest
   possible terms that her continued confinement is unacceptable," Raab
   said in a statement.

   Her lawyer told Iranian state TV he had no news on the status of her
   travel ban.

   British lawmaker Tulip Siddiq said she had spoken to
   Zaghari-Ratcliffe's family and that her first trip would be to see her
   grandmother.

   The detentions of dozens of dual nationals and foreigners have
   complicated ties between Tehran and several European countries
   including Germany, France and Britain, all parties to Tehran's 2015
   nuclear deal with six powers.

   The release come as Iran and the United States are trying to revive the
   deal, which former U.S. president abandoned in 2018 and reimposed
   sanctions on Iran. Tehran responded by scaling down its compliance.