A British-Iranian mother detained in Iran for more than 150 days has been sentenced to five years in prison, dealing a heavy blow to her family and to the UK government’s efforts to normalise relations with Iran. The sentence came 24 hours after the British and Iranian governments established full diplomatic relations for the first time since 2011. Nicholas Hopton, the newly appointed British ambassador, will now have to demand that Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s sentence be quashed on appeal, or at the very least that embassy officials be given access to her. The fact that she was sentenced with unrecognisable charges the day after the UK embassy was upgraded makes this all the clearer. Monique Villa, chief executive of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, said she was outraged and was convinced of Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s innocence.

Source: The Guardian September 09, 2016 16:17 UTC