(Adds statement from charity)
DUBAI, April 26 (Reuters) - An Iranian court sentenced
British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe to another
year in jail, just weeks after she finished a prior five-year
sentence, a decision Britain called "inhumane".
When Zaghari-Ratcliffe was freed from house arrest last
month at the end of a sentence for seeking to overthrow Iran's
government, her family had hoped she could go home to London.
But she was immediately ordered back into court to face new
charges of propaganda against Iran's ruling system.
"So, the lawyer was summoned to (the judge's) office today
and was shown the verdict, but was not given a copy. One year's
sentence, plus one year's travel ban (which I presume run
consecutively)," her husband Richard told Reuters in an email,
adding that an appeal would be filed within 20 days.
The Iranian judiciary could not be reached for comment.
In a statement calling for Zaghari-Ratcliffe's release,
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said: "This is a totally
inhumane and wholly unjustified decision."
Earlier, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters: "I
don't think it's right at all that Nazanin should be sentenced
to any more time in jail."
'ORDEAL'
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson
Reuters Foundation charity, was arrested at a Tehran airport in
April 2016 and later convicted of plotting to overthrow the
clerical establishment.
Her family and the foundation, a charity that operates
independently of media firm Thomson Reuters and its news
subsidiary Reuters, deny all charges against her and say she was
only visiting relatives in Iran.
"Nazanin’s ordeal should have ended on March 7, 2021.
Instead, she continues to be held as a political hostage in
Tehran, a victim of an international dispute," the foundation's
CEO Antonio Zappulla said in a statement.
"The decision to jail Nazanin for an additional year must be
challenged by the UK government."
Zaghari-Ratcliffe spent four years in jail before being
given house arrest in March 2020 during the coronavirus crisis.
Her family says she is being used as a bargaining chip by
Tehran in negotiations, including over hundreds of millions of
dollars owed for an arms order which Britain took payment for in
the 1970s and never delivered.
Iran says its judiciary acts independently and
Zaghari-Ratcliffe's case is not linked to any other issues.
Britain is also a party to Iran's 2015 nuclear deal, which
the United States quit in 2018 and which Tehran and European
countries want to revive.
(Reporting by Parisa Hafezi in Dubai, William James and Michael
Holden in London
Writing by Parisa Hafezi and Peter Graff
Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)