UK group says employee sentenced to 10 years in Iranian prison has been freed
[IsraelTimes] British Council announces the release and return of Aras Amiri, amid ongoing negotiations in Vienna between Iran
...They hate
and world powers.
An Iranian employee of the British Council arrested in Tehran and later sentenced to 10 years in prison over internationally criticized espionage charges has been sprung and traveled to the United Kingdom, the organization said Wednesday.
Iranian authorities did not immediately acknowledge the release of Aras Amiri. However,
a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth...
it comes amid ongoing negotiations in Vienna between Iran and world powers, including the UK, over its tattered 2015 nuclear deal.
The British Council said Wednesday that an appeal her lawyers made to Iran’s Supreme Court
...the political football known as The Highest Court in the Land, home of penumbrae and emanations...
had been successful. Amiri worked for the council’s London office.
"We have always refuted the original charges made against Aras," the council said in a statement. "We are very proud of her work in our London office as an arts program officer supporting a greater understanding and appreciation of Iranian culture in the UK."
In Tehran, her lawyer, Hojjat Kermani, confirmed that Amiri had been released in an interview with The News Agency that Dare Not be Named. He said Iran’s Supreme Court had determined that her earlier espionage conviction in the country’s Revolutionary Court was "against Shariah," or Islamic law. He did not elaborate.
Kermani said she left Tehran on Monday but had been free from prison in recent months as she appealed a travel ban.
Iran announced her conviction in 2019. Authorities there accused her of spying on cultural activities in Iran. The British Council previously said she traveled to Tehran to visit family on a private trip that didn’t involve her work at the nonpolitical organization, which is involved in arts, culture and education.
Iran sends French-Iranian academic back to prison after year of house arrest
[IsraelTimes] Supporters of Fariba Adelkhah say Tehran ‘cynically using our colleague for external or internal purposes that remain opaque,’ adding that authorities are endangering her health.
Adelkhah was sentenced on May 2020 to five years in prison for conspiring against national security, accusations her supporters have always denounced as absurd.
The surprise move by the Iranian authorities to move Adelkhah back to prison comes at a hugely sensitive juncture in talks involving France and other world powers aimed at reviving the 2015 deal on the Iranian nuclear program.
France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian complained Tuesday that the pace of the talks in Vienna is “too slow,” in marked contrast to the more upbeat tone from officials in Tehran.