British-Iranian jailed for six years for spying in Iran
Iranian prosecutors fail to name prisoner or disclose details of case

An unidentified British-Iranian dual citizen has been jailed for six years on spying charges, the official news agency of Iran’s judiciary reported on Sunday.
According to Mizan agency, Tehran-based prosecutor Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi said that “an agent of England’s intelligence service” had received the sentence, and that the prisoner was also under investigation in a separate case related to a private bank.
No further information was reported about when and where the person was arrested and convicted.
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This person has not been identified and “there is no known case of a British-Iranian national being jailed for six years”, says Sky News.
The Independent reports that the UK Foreign Office was “not immediately aware of the case”.
A spokesperson said: “We are currently investigating the reported sentencing of a British-Iranian dual national with the Iranian authorities.”
Because Iran does not recognise dual citizenship, foreign embassies often have limited access to dual nationals held in the country.
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Since 2015, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have arrested at least 30 dual citizens, “mostly on spying charges”, Reuters reported in November.
At least two British-Iranian citizens are known to be held in Iran. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian aid worker, was sentenced to five years in jail after being convicted of seeking to overthrow the Iranian government in 2016.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 39, was classified as eligible for early release in December 2017 after spending more than 18 months in an Iranian prison, but she remains in Iranian custody.
Kamal Foroughi, a 78-year-old British-Iranian businessman, was arrested in 2011 and convicted of espionage and possessing alcohol, which is banned in Iran.
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