Boris Johnson ‘mistake’ could harm case for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, say family

Boris Johnson has been criticised for making a misleading statement about a British-Iranian woman serving a five-year jail term in Iran, in comments that appear to have complicated her legal case.

The UK foreign secretary condemned Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s conviction for spying in Iran last week as a mockery of justice, but added that she was “simply teaching people journalism” – a statement her family and her employer both said was untrue.

On Saturday, three days after Johnson’s statement to a parliamentary committee, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was summoned before an unscheduled court hearing, where the foreign secretary’s comments were cited as proof that she was engaged in “propaganda against the regime”.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s employer, Thomson Reuters Foundation, released a statement making clear that she was not working in Iran, but was on holiday in the country to show her daughter, Gabriella, to her grandparents.

In response to the criticism, the UK Foreign Office said: “Last week’s remarks by the foreign secretary provide no justifiable basis on which to bring any additional charges against Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe” and that he was planning to call his Iranian counterpart to “ensure his remarks are not misrepresented” – but Johnson failed to withdraw his earlier comments.

“When I look at what Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was doing, she was simply teaching people journalism, as I understand it,” Johnson told the foreign affairs committee on Wednesday. “Neither Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe nor her family has been informed about what crime she has actually committed. And that I find extraordinary, incredible.”

Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, has remained adamant that she was visiting family in Iran at the time of her arrest. He said on Monday: “Nazanin was on holiday in Iran with Gabriella when she was abducted. Nazanin is not being held for anything she has personally done. It is deeply misleading by both governments to suggest or even half imply otherwise.

“We demand a clear statement from the foreign secretary to correct his mistake – in parliament and in Tehran at the earliest opportunity.”

Tehran’s prosecutor general said in October that Zaghari-Ratcliffe was being held because she ran “a BBC Persian online journalism course which was aimed at recruiting and training people to spread propaganda against Iran”.

She worked for BBC Media Action between February 2009 and October 2010 before moving to Thomson Reuters Foundation, the news agency’s charitable arm, as a project manager. BBC Media Action has described the Iranian accusations as ridiculous, saying that Zaghari-Ratcliffe had a junior administrative role, but Tehran’s objection shows that it is under the impression that she played a bigger role.

She was arrested in April 2016 when she and her young daughter, Gabriella, were about to return to the UK from Iran. Since then, she has spent most of her time in Evin prison in Tehran while Gabriella, three, has been in the care of her mother’s Iranian family, who are only able to visit her during regular prison visits.

The Iranian establishment loathes the London-based BBC Persian and considers it to be a subversive arm of MI6 aimed at fomenting regime change in Iran. The BBC World Service, which controls the foreign language services, received funding until 2014 from the FCO – a factor that has fanned the Iranian establishment’s distrust.

Richard Ratcliffe said his wife was taken to revolutionary court 15 on Saturday, facing new charges of “propaganda against the regime”. It emerged in October that the authorities were reopening her case and that she was facing fresh charges that may lead to additional years in jail.

“It is of course no coincidence that Nazanin was taken to trial the first working day after the foreign secretary condemned Iran,” her husband said. “For the record, our view is not that he made things worse – just that he made them clearer: Nazanin is being punished to make a point to the British government.

“The issue is not anything Nazanin has done. It is that Iran wants something from the UK, and Nazanin is being used as a pawn by the IRGC [Islamic revolutionary guard corps] to make that point.“It is important that the foreign secretary speaks out, but also that he avoids making false statements because of their potential consequences and manipulations. Wrongly implying that Nazanin was doing something in Iran is particularly dangerous given the failure of the UK previously to stand up for Nazanin’s innocence.”

Tulip Siddiq, the MP for Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s constituency, said she was “stunned by the incompetence of the foreign secretary”.

“He must immediately retract his comments to the foreign affairs select committee regarding my constituent,” she said. “By suggesting Nazanin was in Iran ‘training journalists’, as opposed to simply visiting her parents on a routine visit, he has endangered the cause to secure her release.”

Iran does not recognise dual nationality, thus it treats Zaghari-Ratcliffe solely as Iranian, depriving her of consular access while in jail.

Monique Villa, the chief executive of Thomson Reuters Foundation, urged the foreign secretary to immediately correct his “serious mistake”.

An FCO spokesman said: “While criticising the Iranian case against Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the foreign secretary sought to explain that even the most extreme set of unproven Iranian allegations against her were insufficient reason for her detention and treatment.”