Thursday , 28 March 2024

UK summons Iranian ambassador over plight of British aid worker

Al-Monitor – The United Kingdom summoned the Iranian ambassador on Thursday after new details emerged regarding a British aid work detained there.

The news refers to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a dual UK and Iranian citizen who has been imprisoned in Iran since 2016. She was convicted of plotting to overthrow the government, but denies the charges. She is serving a five-year sentence.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe will soon be called back to court after new charges were brought against her in September, prompting British authorities to call on Iranian Ambassador Hamid Baeidinejad, Reuters reported.

The British Foreign Office called her detention “unjustified and unacceptable,” according to the outlet.

There are several European citizens in prison in Iran, and this is not the first time governments on the continent have addressed the imprisonment of their citizens with Iranian officials. In September, the United Kingdom, France and Germany all summoned the Iranian ambassadors to their countries in the same week over the issue. Academic and dual British-Australian citizen Kylie Moore-Gilbert is also in prison in Iran, as is the French-Iranian anthropologist Fariba Adelkhah.

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