Shabtabnews In this dark night, I have lost my way – Arise from a corner, oh you the star of guidance.
RFL/RE – The British Council says an Iranian female employee convicted of spying for Israel has been acquitted by a court and is now free and has arrived in the United Kingdom.
Aras Amiri, who worked for the council’s London office, was sentenced to 10 years in jail in 2019.
The British Council said on January 12 that an appeal her lawyers made to Iran’s Supreme Court had been successful.
“We are very pleased to confirm that British Council employee and Iranian citizen Aras Amiri has been acquitted by the Supreme Court in Iran of all charges previously made against her, following a successful appeal lodged by her lawyer. She has been freed from detention and has returned to the United Kingdom,” the organization said in a statement.
“We have always refuted the original charges made against Aras,” the statement said. “We are very proud of her work in our London office as an arts program officer supporting a greater understanding and appreciation of Iranian culture in the U.K.”
Iranian officials did not immediately acknowledge her release.
Another British-Iranian woman who has been detained in Iran since April 2016, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, is currently serving a five-year prison sentence for allegedly planning the “soft toppling” of Iran’s government while traveling with her young daughter.
