British-Iranian aid worker ends house arrest in Iran but faces new trial

British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, jailed in Tehran for five years on spying charges, has completed her sentence. But her lawyer says she faces a new trial and cannot yet return home to London. Iran continues to hold French-Iranian researcher Fariba Adelkhah, and another Frenchman detained without trial.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe completed her full sentence and was allowed to remove her ankle monitor and leave house arrest, but her future remains uncertain. 

“It feels to me like they have made one blockage just as they have removed another, and we very clearly remain in the middle of this government game of chess,” her husband Richard Ratcliffe said.

New court appearance

Iranian state-run Mehr News Agency reported that Zaghari-Ratcliffe's would "face a new court date for new charges on March 14 due to her activities against the Iranian Establishment."

Her family, human rights organisations and politicians have demanded her immediate release.

Authorities released her on furlough last March due to surging coronavirus pandemic, and she has remained in detention at her parent's home in Tehran since. 

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 43, was sentenced to five years in jail after being convicted of plotting to overthrow Iran's government, a charge she vigorously denies.

Mehr says she was arrested for running "an illegal course to recruit and train people for the Persian service of the BBC, which is a major party to the 'soft war' being waged by the West against Tehran, according to Iranian officials".

In 2016, the aid worker was taken into custody at the airport with her toddler daughter after visiting family on holiday in Tehran. At the time, she was working for Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of the news agency. 

The United Nations has described her arrest as arbitrary, and reported that her treatment, including stints in solitary confinement and deprivation of medical care, could amount to torture.

French nationals detained

In March last year, two French academics held in Iran went on trial, accused of plotting "acts against national security".

French-Iranian Fariba Adelkhah and Frenchman Roland Marchal, both researchers at Sciences Po University in Paris, were detained by the Islamic republic in June 2019.

Marchal was eventually freed on 20 March 2020 but Adelkhah   was sentenced to 6 years , an outcome "utterly condemned" by the French government. 

In a speech on 24 February for the UN Human Rights Council, French Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian reiterated France's demand that Adelkhah be liberated. 

Mini helicopter

Last week, France also confirmed that Iran has been keeping a French tourist in detention for nine months. 

The man was only identified by his name, Benjamin. He had entered Iran on a tourist visa, after driving all the way from France in a van. He was arrested in May 2020 in northeastern Iran near the border with Turkmenistan, when, according to his lawyer, he was operating a remote-controlled mini helicopter, or helicam, used to take nature photos.

RFI's correspondent in Tehran says there are many military bases along the road from Tehran to Machhad in the northeast, including ballistic missile sites.

The man is being held in Vakilabad prison in Machhad and has reportedly had visits from consular officials. He has been able to communicate with his family in France a number of times since he was detained.

Nuclear talks

The UK and France, along with Germany, make up the so-called "E3",  the European signatories to the Iran nuclear deal, or JCPOA, aimed at limiting Iran's nuclear programme. They have been working to salvage the international accord after the  hardline politics of former US president Donald Trump, who unilaterally walked away in May 2018.  

With the new US administration of Joe Biden, talks to revive the pact are showing signs of advancing. 

Iran recently set free f our imprisoned Iranian-Americans, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, who was convicted of espionage hours before the official announcement of the activation of JCPOA on 16 January 2016.

Iran denies any link between international deals and the release of prisoners.