Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, at the heart of heightened diplomatic tensions between London and Tehran, appeared on Sunday March 14 for a new trial, his lawyer, Hojjat Kermani, announced.

Accused of propaganda against the Iranian state, the Iranian-Briton is now awaiting the verdict, a few days after having finished serving a five-year prison sentence.

"The trial took place in a calm atmosphere. (...) From a legal point of view, the court should deliver the verdict in a week but that depends on the judge. I am hopeful that she will be acquitted. "said Hojjat Kermani.

The head of the British diplomacy, Dominic Raab, considered "unacceptable" this trial, which he described as "completely arbitrary".

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 42, "must be allowed to return to his family in the UK without delay," he added.

"We will continue to do whatever we can to support her."

>> Read also: "An Iranian-British trapped in Tehran's 'hostage diplomacy'"

A verdict expected by March 30

According to Hojjat Kermani, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is being prosecuted for "propaganda against the system (policy of the Islamic Republic, editor's note) for having participated in a rally in front of the Iranian embassy in London in 2009".

Sunday's hearing took place "in the presence of my client, in front of the 15th chamber of the Revolutionary Tribunal in Tehran," said Mr. Kermani.

"The pleadings have taken place and the trial has ended."

This is the resumption of a second legal procedure started in October 2017 and adjourned in November 2020. In accordance with the law, the court has seven working days to make its decision known.

Considering many public holidays to come around the Iranian New Year (March 21), this theoretically leaves the court until March 30 to make its decision known, but deadlines are common in the Iranian justice system.

"Uncertain future"

According to her support committee, the 40-year-old was allowed to make a statement at the hearing.

She "made it clear that she did not accept the charges (brought against her) and noted that all charges and evidence presented (by the prosecution) had already been presented in her (first) trial in 2016. ", and that she had" already been tried and convicted "on these charges, writes the Free Nazanin (" Free Nazanin ") campaign in a statement.

"Taking into account the elements presented by the defense and the legal process, and the fact that my client also served her previous sentence, I hope that she will be acquitted," said Mr. Kermani.

But the support committee is less optimistic, judging that "the future of Nazanin remains uncertain and that she is in fact in indefinite detention".

Project manager for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the news agency of the same name, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in 2016 at Tehran airport after visiting her family.

Accused of having plotted to overthrow the Islamic Republic, which she fiercely denies, this binational was sentenced in September of the same year to five years in prison.

Hope for release in disappointment, she was forced to serve her sentence to the end.

Private passport

Under house arrest with her parents in Tehran after being allowed out of prison due to the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, she has not worn an electronic bracelet since March 7.

Deprived of a passport, she is banned from leaving Iran until further notice.

For her husband, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is the "hostage" of a sinister political game concerning an old debt contracted by the United Kingdom within the framework of an arms contract with Iran before the revolution Islamic 1979, and never honored by London.

In a report delivered Friday to the head of British diplomacy Dominic Raab, the NGO Redress noted that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe suffered from severe post-traumatic stress after suffering "ill-treatment" during his deprivation of liberty in Iran and that she should therefore be recognized by London as a "victim of torture".

Iranian authorities have always denied that she was mistreated.

According to a statement from Downing Street, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday demanded in a phone call with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani the "immediate release" of all Iranian-British dual nationals detained in Iran and the return of Nazanin Zaghari- Ratcliffe in the UK.

Iran, which does not recognize dual citizenship, has consistently denied the UK consular access to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe while she was in prison and has consistently criticized London's calls for her release, which it considers like interference in its internal affairs.

With AFP and Reuters

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