The case of a British-Iranian mother detained on accusations of spying in Iran has been raised by Theresa May at her first meeting with the country’s president.
May is understood to have questioned the five-year prison sentence given to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe at a meeting with the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, at the United Nations in New York.
Last year Britain reestablished diplomatic relations with Iran for the first time since the storming of the embassy in Tehran, with David Cameron meeting Rouhani at the general assembly. May is continuing a policy of engagement but raised a number of consular cases of concern with Rouhani.
The most high-profile is that of Zaghari-Ratcliffe, an employee of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the news agency’s charitable arm, who was sentenced this year on charges that remain secret but are said to include spying.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 37, who was accused of plotting to topple the Iranian regime, was arrested at Imam Khomeini airport on 3 April as she was trying to return to Britain after a holiday visiting family with her daughter, Gabriella.
A UK official said: “We think it is important with all the relations we have around the world that we can engage frankly where there are issues that need resolving. Our view is if we are going to have a productive relationship with Iran … then we should all be able to raise such issues and discuss them.”
