“All the things about charges against Nazanin Zaghari or connecting it with bilateral relations between Iran and UK are baseless speculations with no validity,” said Bahram Ghasemi, the Spokesperson of the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Sunday.
The Iranian diplomat made the remarks in an interview with Fars News Agency. The FNA posed the questions on Mr. Ghasemi after a new claim was released by Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of Nazanin Zaghari, that Iranian judiciary officials have told him that the main reason for her wife’s imprisonment is the unpaid debts of the British government to Iran.
“Ms. Zaghari, as an Iranian citizen has been found guilty by the Iranian judiciary and security entities and she was trialed according to the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran and now she is serving her sentence according to the same laws,” reiterated the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman.
“There is no connection between her conviction and the bilateral relations between Tehran and London and assuredly this is not a case relevant to some problems or financial disputers between Iran and UK,” reassured Mr. Ghasemi.
Also the British Foreign Office has denied the claims, insisting that her case was not linked to the debt issue.
The Free Nazanin campaign claims that Mrs. Zaghari, who was arrested in Tehran in 2016, was taken to meet the judiciary on Wednesday and told that her ongoing imprisonment was due to a "continuing dispute" between the two countries over the interest rate used to calculate the present value of historic debt.
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