A lawyer for British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has said that her trial on charges of “propaganda against the system” was held in Tehran.
Lawyer Hojjat Kermani told an Iranian website that the March 14 trial “was held in a calm atmosphere with the presence of my client.”
“The legal defense was made,” he added. “I am very hopeful that she will be acquitted.”
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested in Tehran in April 2016. She was later sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted of plotting to overthrow Iran’s clerical government.
She served most of her sentence in Tehran’s Evin prison, but was released to house arrest in March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On March 7, Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 42, was released from house arrest at the end of her term but was immediately summoned to court again to face the new charge.
She has been barred from leaving the country.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe has denied all the accusations against her.
Iran has arrested dozens of foreigners and dual nationals in recent years on espionage charges that they and their governments say are groundless.
Critics say Iran uses arbitrary detentions as a form of hostage diplomacy to extract concessions from Western governments, which Tehran denies.
On March 10, a spokesman for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s “continued confinement remains completely unacceptable” and called for her immediate release.