TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – An Iranian-British woman detained in Iran faces charges of trying to cause the “soft toppling” of the government, a state-run news agency reported Wednesday, the latest in a series of cases in which dual nationals have been detained since last year’s nuclear deal with world powers. Her husband dismissed the charges as “extraordinary and untrue.”
IRNA’s report marks the first official acknowledgment of the detention of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who works for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of the news agency.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard detained Zaghari-Ratcliffe on April 3 at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport and later transferred her to a prison in Kerman province, according to the IRNA report. It said she had phone calls and met regularly with her family.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained while trying to fly out of the country with her toddler daughter, Gabriella, who remains in Iran with family after authorities seized her passport, according to Amnesty International.
The Guard said Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 37, had participated in the “design and implementation of cyber and media projects to cause the soft toppling of the Islamic Republic.” It did not elaborate. Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.