LONDON — Last month, it seemed as if Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s five-year ordeal of detention in Iran was drawing to a close when she was released from house arrest.
But on Monday, Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian dual citizen, was handed a one-year sentence and travel ban on new charges of conducting “propaganda activities” against the Iranian government. The latest sentence, on charges that Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe and her family have long denied, is a further attempt by Iran to use her as a political pawn, her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, said.
Her lawyer was summoned to court on Monday to hear the verdict, and Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe now has 20 days to appeal, he said. It was not immediately clear if Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who is still in Iran, was sentenced to prison or a term of house arrest, but her husband said she had not yet been summoned back to jail.
“It’s clearly a game of cat and mouse, and has been for a while,” Mr. Ratcliffe said. “We are a bargaining chip, but we don’t know what’s happening behind closed doors.”
intended to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal.
Tulip Siddiq, a lawmaker who represents Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s local area, called the news a “terrible blow for Nazanin and her family, who have been hoping and praying that she would soon be free to come home.”
She added: “It is devastating to see Nazanin once again being abusively used as bargaining chip.” She also called on the British government to issue an explanation about what had gone wrong in diplomatic discussions to secure her release.