As I write, my fiancee, Aras Amiri, is being held in an Iranian jail on false charges of espionage. A British Council employee, she’s caught in the middle of two global powers who refuse, or don’t know how, to talk to each other.

Aras is an Iranian citizen, and by fabricating untruths (lies that the Iranian ministry of intelligence knows to be utterly false), and imprisoning her through a bogus trial and an appeal without legal representation, the Iranian government is simply imprisoning its own citizen, shooting itself in the foot to spite an enemy. It is no coincidence that Aras’s appeal was rejected and her 10-year sentence confirmed on the same day that a Gibraltar court made its decision on the release of the Grace 1 tanker, a ship that British troops hijacked at the behest of the US government.

The Iranian government, through its ministry of culture and Islamic guidance, approved and supported the work that Aras carried out as an arts officer at the British Council. Her work involved only supporting the work of Iranian artists and showing the best of Iranian art to UK audiences through theatre performances, literary translations, visual art exhibitions, film screenings and music concerts at major UK festivals and events across the country. The ministry of culture and Islamic guidance even came on official visits, including to the Edinburgh Festival, to discuss future opportunities for improving cultural understanding between Iran and the UK. This led to partnerships that enabled disabled artists from Iran and the UK to meet.

For that same government to now use Aras as a political pawn against the UK with a maximum prison sentence is a rather hellish sign of the lengths power will go to, and how far people will go “just following orders”. It is a manifestation of Iran’s own frustrations, but also of the UK’s diplomatic failings. It is an embarrassment to both regimes, demonstrating deep insecurity, a lack of dignity, generosity and respect. British officials and organisations hold a poker face, offering platitudes while remaining utterly blind to their own responsibility. They clasp their hands in helplessness while readying themselves for military instructions. A chess match might make for a more amicable resolution.

This stand-off of government hostage-taking reveals the depravity beneath the “respectable” codes of modern international relations. When governments start arresting artists, writers and those who care for the culture of their country it is always a poor reflection on the regimes that imprison them. Yet we who carry Aras’s spirit are already far away, witnessed by the mountains of the Iranian north, and with the prayers of those across continents. For, however many years are put on this sentence based on deceit and untruth, it does not matter, until those responsible can recognise their own betrayal.

One would like to think, as CLR James wrote, translating a poem by Aimé Césaire, that there is a “place for all at the rendezvous of victory”. One would like to think that grace might enable each individual to stand against the perversion of justice.

• James Tyson is an arts producer. He worked with his fiancee, Aras Amiri, at the British Council