Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian woman serving a five-year jail sentence in Tehran, has been told to expect another conviction after she went to court to face new charges, her husband has said.



Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 39, who has been in prison for two years, was taken to court on Saturday for “spreading propaganda against the state”, despite claims of diplomatic progress.



She was arrested in April 2016 at a Tehran airport when she and her then 22-month-old daughter, Gabriella, were about to return to the UK after a family visit. During her first trial, Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who works for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of the news agency, was accused of running “a BBC Persian online journalism course” and seeking a “soft overthrow” of the Islamic Republic.

Richard Ratcliffe, who spoke to his wife after she appeared in the latest trial, said she burst into tears while discussing her daughter, who will turn four in June.



He said that his wife appealed to the judge for clemency and asked to be released for her daughter’s sake.



Ratcliffe said his wife denied the new charges against her, but the judge, Abolghassem Salavati, told her she should expect to be convicted. The court session took place in the absence of her lawyer, who was prevented from attending.

Mizan Online, a news agency affiliated to the Iranian judiciary, downplayed the trial, saying she had not been charged during the session because her lawyer was not present in court.



Iran’s judiciary brought the new case against Zaghari-Ratcliffe in October for additional charges, based on claims of fresh evidence that appear to include a BBC pay stub and contents of her personal email.

However, by December, the case appeared to have been stopped when the UK foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, visited Tehran and authorities later said the new trial had been cancelled.

According to her husband, Zaghari-Ratcliffe said: “Going back to the revolutionary court gives me such a fit. I don’t want to go there again. It looks like a definite new sentence, which is nonsense, but it is not clear what is going on. It looks like they are just buying time.”

He said Zaghari-Ratcliffe also told the judge she believed her case was related to a sum of money the UK government owes to Tehran in connection with a four-decade legal dispute over hundreds of Chieftain tanks Iran bought from the UK in 1976.



The British government admits it owes Iran up to £300m, but the countries have wrangled over the precise sum and the interest Tehran wants over the delayed payment.



Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s high-profile case has become intertwined with Johnson’s political career since he made an erroneous statement last year, which appeared to complicate her legal situation. Johnson has since apologised for mistakenly saying she was training journalists in Iran, while in fact, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was on holiday.

On Sunday, Zaghari-Ratcliffe had a 20-minute telephone conversation with the British ambassador to Iran, Rob Macaire. It marked the first time she had been allowed such direct contact with the embassy in more than two years.

Ratcliffe said the news over the weekend was mixed. “The threatened court case has become real, the refusal of her lawyer is not a good omen of justice,” he said on Monday. “But also, Nazanin was allowed to call the British embassy for the first time. After two years, that is a good sign, and we were glad. Hopefully, the good news will lead to them finally being able to visit.

“Nazanin asked the ambassador to issue a formal letter of protest, a démarche, at her treatment. Three sets of unfair court processes, after two years of unfair detention, seems enough to merit issuing one.”



The prime minister’s official spokesman said: “The FCO [Foreign and Commonwealth Office] is urgently seeking more information from the Iranian authorities. The UK government remains committed to doing everything possible to help secure Miss Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s release and alleviate her suffering.”



Kerry Moscogiuri, Amnesty International UK’s campaigns director, said the latest trial was “yet another body blow” for Zaghari-Ratcliffe.



“This will be incredibly upsetting for Nazanin and her family,” she said. “Nazanin has already been subjected to a blatantly unfair trial and sentence, and a string of unfounded accusations in the Iranian media.”

The Thomson Reuters Foundation said the renewed charges against her were “a mockery that prolongs the ordeal she has been subjected to since day one”.

“We totally reject the renewed accusations that Nazanin is guilty of spreading propaganda against the Iranian regime, and continue to assert that she is 100% innocent,” said the foundation’s chief executive, Monique Villa.