November 01, 2019
A London-based British Council employee who was jailed for 10 years in Iran earlier this year only found out about her sentencing by watching the news on Iranian television.
Aras Amiri has written a letter to the head of the Iranian Judiciary protesting her “unlawful” treatment, IranWire reported.
Amiri, who is also an aesthetics and art theory student at Kingston University in England, was arrested in March 2018 while visiting her sick grandmother in Tehran.
The 32-year-old Iranian national, who has permanent residency status in the United Kingdom, has not been allowed to leave Iran since.
IranWire said it had seen a letter sent by Amiri to Ebrahim Raisi, chairman of the Iranian judicial system, in which she provides details about her arrest and imprisonment.
The student said she was arrested on the street and taken to a hotel in Tehran for questioning before being transferred to Evin Prison. Bail was set at 700 million rials ($5,300). But, despite the money being posted in cash, Amiri said she was not released.
Amiri spent 30 days in solitary confinement where she was interrogated continuously by Iranian authorities about her job at the British Council.
Announcing her sentencing in May, the Judiciary accused Amiri of being “in charge of the Iran desk in the British Council and cooperating with Britain’s intelligence agency.”
The British Council has said Amiri worked as an artistic officer to help “greater appreciation of Iranian culture in the UK.”
Amiri did not travel to Iran for work, as the cultural outreach program does not do any work in the country. Iran closed down the British Council’s offices in Tehran in 2009.
Amiri was offered the chance to go back to the UK by Iranian authorities if she spied on her employers, her cousin, Mohsen Omrani, previously told The National, a daily in the UAE. When she refused, things started to “escalate,” Omrani said.
Amiri said in the letter that she was later charged with “founding and directing a network for overthrowing the regime,” which carries a sentence of between two and 10 years under Article 498 of the Islamic Penal Code.
She said she only learned of her sentencing on espionage charges when she watched it on Iranian national television.
