Iran 'throws new charges' at Iranian-British mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe

The husband of an Iranian-British woman detained in Tehran says she now faces a new charge of "spreading propaganda against the regime."

A statement on Monday from him says Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe learned of the new charge at a court hearing on Saturday before Judge Abolghassem Salavati of Tehran's hard-line Revolutionary Court.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who works for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, is serving a five-year prison sentence for allegedly planning the "soft toppling" of Iran's government while traveling with her young daughter.

The young girl, Gabriella, has remained in Iran in the care of relatives.

Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, said "the judge told Nazanin to expect that there will likely be another conviction and sentence against her."

Iranian state media and officials didn't immediately report the court hearing.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe's case comes as London is considering repaying Tehran some 400 million British pounds from a pre-1979 arms deal.

The case has become highly politicised, especially after a careless blunder by the UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson in December.

Johnson mistakenly claimed 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 have contributed to her lengthened sentence.