British-Iranian woman sentenced to five years for 'sedition'

A British-Iranian woman accused of taking part in anti-regime protests in 2009 has been sentenced to five years in prison, her husband said on Friday, but added that the specific charges had not been revealed.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who works for the Thomson Reuters Foundation and was arrested on April 3, called her husband Richard on Tuesday to inform him of her sentence, he said in a statement.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, was arrested at Tehran airport on April 3 as she prepared to return to Britain with her two-year-old daughter after visiting family in Iran.

In June, Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards had said Zaghari-Ratcliffe was accused of being "involved in the soft overthrow of the Islamic republic through... her membership in foreign companies and institutions."

According to a Guards statement, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was "identified and arrested after massive intelligence operations" as one of "the heads of foreign-linked hostile networks".

She was alleged to have conducted "various missions... leading her criminal activities under the direction of media and intelligence services of foreign governments".

Iran does not recognise dual citizenship.

Britain has said it has raised the case "repeatedly and at the highest levels" and will continue to do so at "every available opportunity".