Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe to face second charge of 'spreading propaganda' in Iranian court

A British Iranian mother who has been jailed in Iran could face another five years behind bars if she is convicted of fresh charges next month, her husband has said.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is already serving a five years after she was convicted 19 months ago, of plotting to overthrow Iran's clerical establishment - a charge she denies.

The project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation has now been told by Middle Eastern country's authorities that she will be charged with “propaganda against the regime”, her husband Richard Ratcliffe said. She will appear in court on 10 December.

The news will dash the family's hopes that she would be granted early release after serving 14 months of her prison sentence.

The new charges come after Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson mistakenly suggested Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been “teaching journalism” in the country's capital Tehran.

His comments led to calls for him to be sacked from his role as Foreign Secretary. After initially refusing to apologise, he was eventually forced to do so before Parliament.

His comments that were seized upon by the Iranian judiciary as supposed proof of her guilt.

Both Mr Ratcliffe and her employer have said this was a complete error. They insisted that the charity worker had been on holiday visiting family with her then one-year-old daughter Gabriella.

“We were hoping the case would disappear," Mr Ratcliffe told The Times. "She is angry and bewildered about what is going on.

“She said she thought she was going to be able to come home for Christmas but will now be in court in two weeks. Our experience is that court cases have always been bad news. She has been declared guilty at every stage.”

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe will reportedly be tried by Judge Abolghasem Salavati, the same judge who sentenced her to five years in jail last September. He was placed on the European Union’s sanctions list in 2011 for “gross human rights violations”.

Mr Johnson faced calls to resign earlier this month after his comments to the Foreign Affairs Committee that Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was doing "simply teaching people journalism”.

Iranian state TV seized on the comments as an “unintended confession”, prompting fears that his remarks were being used by the Iranian authorities to justify her continued imprisonment over spying allegations.

However, the couple received better news from doctors, who told them ms Zaghari-Ratcliff does not have breast cancer.

Mr Ratcliffe told the BBC his wife saw doctors after finding lumps in her breasts and it was a "great relief" to find out they were not cancerous.

It came as Downing Street said it was considering offering diplomatic protection Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, which would make the case a legal dispute between Iran and the UK, rather than a consular issue.

But Mr Ratcliffe claimed he had submitted a legal opinion that his wife, a dual national, was entitled to diplomatic protection to the Foreign Office more than two months ago but received no reply.

The Iranian authorities insist that the proceedings against Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe followed the country’s judicial process. They also point out that Iran does not recognise dual nationality and thus she is regarded as an Iranian citizen.

They highlight that she sees her child every day and is in daily communication with her husband in the UK. British diplomatic sources say that efforts will continue to get her released.