British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe appeared before Iran’s Revolutionary Court Sunday, facing charges of “propaganda against the system.”
“Legally, the court should announce the verdict in a week, but it is up to the judge. I am very hopeful that she will be acquitted,” said her lawyer Hojjat Kermani.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in 2016 on charges that she was plotting to overthrow Iran’s government, a charge she has denied.
Kermani said the trial was held in a “calm atmosphere” and the “final defense” was made.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe was released from house arrest last week and her ankle bracelet was removed, but she was not allowed to travel to join her family in Britain.
She was released from prison last year in March as the coronavirus began to snake around the world. She had been imprisoned for five years.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said Zaghari-Ratcliffe must be allowed to return home to Britain to her husband and daughter.
At the time of her arrest, Zaghari-Ratcliffe worked for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, a charity that operates independently of media firm Thomson Reuters and its news subsidiary Reuters.
Sunday’s trial comes after Redress, a human rights aid organization, released a statement saying Zaghari-Ratcliffe is in urgent need of mental and physical health care after enduring hours of interrogation while blindfolded and solitary confinement.
