British-Iranian Dual Citizen To Ask For ‘Conditional Release’

Radiofarda – The lawyer of an Iranian-British dual citizen imprisoned in Iran told the official news agency IRNA that his client will ask for conditional release from jail.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in Tehran in April 2016, while visiting her family. She was convicted on an ambiguous charge of “sedition” and sentenced to five years in prison.

International human rights organization and the British government have pressed for her release, but Iranian authorities have so far denied any clemency for her.

The lawyer, Mahmoud Behzadi-Rad said that Zaghari-Ratcliffe has completed half of her sentence and according to the law she is entitled to a conditional release.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who works for the Thomson Reuters Foundation – the media organization’s philanthropic arm – is the mother of a four-year-old daughter and has not been an opposition activist.

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt visited Iran in November and met with her family. Later he tweeted, “No child should have to go this long without their mother” and added, “British-Iranian dual nationals wrongly imprisoned must be freed”.

In August, she was allowed a three day leave from prison and she met her daughter and family.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s lawyer also told IRNA that she is ill and they have made a request for her to be transferred to a hospital.