Aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe avoids return to Tehran jail as trial is delayed

Charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe avoided a return to jail on Monday after her trial in Iran was delayed.

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 41, had been warned she faced an end to more than seven months on temporary release and a return to the Iranian jail in which she was held for four years.

But the British-Iranian’s court case was adjourned before she was given the opportunity to put forward her defence.

A date for the next hearing has yet to be set and she has been allowed to return to her parents’ home in Iran under house arrest.

Tulip Siddiq, a British MP who represents the charity worker’s constituency in London, tweeted on Monday she had spoken to Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband.

“Spoke to Nazanin’s husband Richard just now,” she said.

“She was taken to court, but trial was adjourned before she could put forward a defence. No date for next hearing, but also no prison and she is back home with her parents.”

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained in April 2016 as she prepared to head home to the UK with her young daughter after visiting family in Iran.

She was convicted after a secret trial and Iranian media have claimed she was plotting against the state.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said she ran a “foreign-linked hostile network”. No charges have officially been made public.

But her family say she is among a group of foreign and dual citizens being held illegally by Iran as pawns in a wider diplomatic game.

Last week, Iranian authorities summoned Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe to court and warned her she must pack a bag in preparation to continue serving a five-year jail sentence, her family said.

On Monday, Ms Siddiq criticised the UK government for not attending the hearing.

“The UK Gov did NOT attend despite our repeated requests,” she tweeted.

“The mental torture continues. My constituent’s safety is my top priority – these mind games must be stopped.”

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was released in March as part of Iran’s efforts to combat the spread of the coronavirus in its jails but she has had to wear an electronic tag and remain at the home of her parents in Iran.

The summons followed a six-month delay in a UK court case over a £380 million ($491m) arms deal debt owed to Iran.

The family of Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe believe her jail term is linked to the debt, which dates back to the 1970s.

The High Court hearing between the Iranian Ministry of Defence and the UK’s defence sales arm IMS over the arms debt had been due to be held on Tuesday, but last week it was rescheduled for April 2021.

Reacting to the delay, Mr Ratcliffe said: “This is a cruel game of cat-and-mouse waiting. And yesterday it got crueller.

“We do think that if she’s not home for Christmas, there’s every chance this could run for years.”