Iran jails British-Iranian 'spy' for six years

The UK's foreign office has said it is investigating reports of an unnamed British-Iranian dual citizen being jailed for spying in Iran.

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab & agencies

12 March, 2018

The unnamed dual national was accused of spying for England [AFP]

Authorities in Iran have sentenced a British-Iranian national to six years in prison for spying, according to state media.

The unnamed individual's sentence was announced by Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, according to Iran's Mizan news agency.

The dual national was reportedly handed the sentence for being "an agent of England's intelligence service".

According to the report, the same individual is the subject of a seperate investigation relating to a private bank.

Britain's Foreign Office has said that it is "currently investigating the reported sentencing".

Iran has jailed a number of individuals for allegedly acting as spies for Western powers and Israel, including dual nationals.

Almost two years ago, British-Iranian citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested for allegedly plotting to topple Iran's government.

The Thomson Reuters Foundation employee remains in custody, having served a third of her five-year jail sentence for sedition.

Although Zaghari-Ratcliffe is now eligible for release, her family said last week that they have received no information from Tehran about why she is still in custody.

The case has become highly politicised, especially after a careless blunder by British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson in December in which he stated that Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been training journalists in Iran - something the Thomson Reuters Foundation and her family have strongly denied.

This has been used by the Iranian authorities to help justify the new charges and may contribute to her potentially lengthened sentence.

An online petition for her release has collected almost 1.5 million signatures.