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A British mum who has been held in jail in Iran for 18 months could face her sentence being increased by five years after a blunder by Boris Johnson.

The foreign secretary has been accused of "incompetence" and of playing "into the hands of Iran's hardliners who want to see a British citizen locked away for good".

Mr Johnson told a parliamentary committee last week that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was working in Tehran training journalists at the time of her arrest in 2016.

Four days later, she was summoned before an unscheduled court hearing, where the Foreign Secretary's comments were cited as proof that she was engaged in "propaganda against the regime".

(Image: PA)

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe's employer, Thomson Reuters Foundation, released a statement making clear that she was not working in Iran, but was on holiday in the country to show her daughter Gabriella to her grandparents.

The Foundation's chief executive officer Monique Villa urged Mr Johnson to correct his "serious mistake", warning that the development "can only worsen her sentence".

Both the Foundation and Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe's family see a "direct correlation" between the Foreign Secretary's comments and the action by hardline judge Abolghassem Salavati, said Ms Villa.

Zananin's husband Richard Ratcliffe has called on Mr Johnson to correct his mistake.

He told the Huffington Post: “It was clearly a mistake and it has clearly had consequences and it is incumbent on the Foreign Secretary to correct it. To make a clear statement about it.”

(Image: Parliament live TV)

Richard said Iran was awash with “conspiracies” and Johnson’s remark had reignited and “encouraged whispering”.

Richard said the latest charge against his wife would make her a “repeat offender” and did not make sense.

“They’re trying to convict her of a crime for a second time,” he said, adding that the judiciary was “making it up as it goes along... but it is not trying to pretend a proper legal process is happening. It is political.”

“We have been very clear for the best part of two years that she was on holiday,” Richard explained to HuffPost UK.

“The Government implying that she was doing something, that she wasn’t just on holiday, is unhelpful. I’d like the Government to say she is innocent. That they can’t hold her like that.... I’d like that even more so now.”

The family's MP Tulip Siddiq, who has been supporting the family said she was "amazed by the incompetence of the foreign secretary".

(Image: PA) (Image: PA)

She said: " He has let Nazanin down, and has given her family further cause for despair."

"By saying she was in Iran ‘teaching journalism’, he has played into the hands of Iran’s hardliners who want to see a British citizen locked away for good.

Ms Siddiq called on the foreign secretary to retract his comments and said that Mr Johnson had harmed Nazanin's chances of release.

She said: "In her 18 months of arbitrary detention in Iran, he has yet to visit Nazanin or her family, including her husband Richard, who has been separated from his wife and their daughter for a year and a half.

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was sentenced to five years in jail in September after apparently being accused of involvement in a planned coup against the Iranian regime.

The Times reported that new charges of propaganda against the regime could now add a further five years to her incarceration.

Condemning her imprisonment, Mr Johnson told the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee on November 1: "When I look at what Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was doing, she was simply teaching people journalism as I understand it.

(Image: PA)

"(Neither) Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe nor her family has been informed about what crime she has actually committed. And that I find extraordinary, incredible."

The Iranian judiciary's High Council for Human Rights said: "His statement shows that Nazanin had visited the country for anything but a holiday.

"For months it was claimed that Nazanin is a British-Iranian charity worker who went to see her family when she was arrested ... Mr Johnson's statement has shed new light on the realities about Nazanin."

In a statement, Ms Villa said: "I once again urge Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to immediately correct the serious mistake he made at the Foreign Affairs Committee in Parliament.

"On November 1 he said that Nazanin 'was training journalists' in Iran. I have immediately clarified that this is not right as she is not a journalist and has never trained journalists at the Thomson Reuters Foundation, where she is project manager in my media development team.

"She was in Iran on holiday to show her 22-month-old daughter Gabriella to her grandparents when she was arrested at Tehran Airport on 3 April 2016.

(Image: PA) (Image: PA)

"Like Richard Ratcliffe, her husband, I see a direct correlation between this statement by Boris Johnson, who rightly condemned the treatment that Nazanin has received in Iran, and the fact that Nazanin was brought once again into court on Saturday November 4 and accused of 'spreading propaganda against the regime'.

"This accusation from Judge Salavati can only worsen her sentence.

"She is obviously a bargaining chip between the UK government and Iran and this injustice must stop as soon as possible. Whatever is at stake should be paid attention to by the UK Government."

Allan Hogarth, Amnesty International UK's head of policy and government affairs, said: "Everything that's happened to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe since she was detained last year suggests the Iranian authorities have been intent on building a bogus criminal case against her.

"Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe is a charity worker and mother of a young daughter who's already been subjected to solitary confinement, a grossly unfair trial and now reportedly faces the threat of a new criminal charge.

"The Foreign Secretary's call last week for Zaghari-Ratcliffe to be released was welcome, but he must clarify his remarks about her work and the purpose of her visit to Iran last year."

FCO spokesman said: “Last week’s remarks by the Foreign Secretary provide no justifiable basis on which to bring any additional charges against Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

“While criticising the Iranian case against Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the Foreign Secretary sought to explain that even the most extreme set of unproven Iranian allegations against her were insufficient reason for her detention and treatment.

“The UK will continue to do all it can to secure her release on humanitarian grounds and the Foreign Secretary will be calling the Iranian Foreign Minister to raise again his serious concerns about the case and ensure his remarks are not misrepresented.”