British-Iranian aid worker returns to jail after temporary release - husband

LONDON (Reuters) - A detained British-Iranian aid worker sentenced to five years in jail in Iran was returned to prison on Sunday after a request to extend her three-day temporary release was rejected, her husband said.

Family handout photograph showing British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe reunited with her daughter Gabriella after her temporary release from an Iranian jail, in Tehran, Iran August 23, 2018.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested in April 2016 at a Tehran airport as she was heading back to Britain with her two-year-old daughter after a family visit.

She was convicted of plotting to overthrow Iran’s clerical establishment, a charge denied by her family and the Foundation, a charity organisation that is independent of Thomson Reuters and operates independently of Reuters News.

Her husband Richard Ratcliffe, who is in Britain, said in a statement she returned to prison in Tehran to continue serving her sentence despite hopes her release would be extended.

Iranian authorities and her lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment. Britain’s foreign ministry declined to comment on her status.

“We do not think it is in the best interests of any of our dual national detainees to provide a running commentary on individual cases,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Reporting By Andrew MacAskill and Babak Dehghanpisheh; Editing by Nick Tattersall, Richard Balmforth

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