May 17, 2019
An Iranian woman who lives in Britain has been sentenced to 10 years in prison by Iran for being an agent of the UK.
Judiciary spokesman Gholam-Hossain Esmaili said the woman had been “in charge of the Iran desk” of the British Council, a cultural organization. She confessed to “co-operating” with British intelligence, he asserted.
Esmaili did not identify the woman. But a relative named her as Aras Amiri, 33, a London-based British Council employee who was detained in Iran in March 2018. The relative, a cousin, said last May that Amiri had been charged with “acting against national security,” a common Iranian charge that falls short of espionage.
The cousin said Amiri had been living in Britain for about 10 years before her arrest and had worked on cultural exchanges between Britain and Iran that often involved Iran’s Culture Ministry.
A friend told Reuters that Amiri was a British resident but did not hold British nationality.
The cousin said Amiri had made frequent trips to Iran in the past to visit her family and had not had any problems. The cousin said Amiri was being held in the same section of Evin prison as Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the best known of all the dual nationals Iran has imprisoned.
The cases of the two women are very similar. Both worked for British agencies hated by Iran. (Reuters, in the case of Zaghari-Ratcliffe.) Both were arrested when visiting relatives in Iran. Both women stand accused of working against Iran, but both agencies have said the women did no work inside Iran or with regard to the Iranian government.
The British Council has a long history in Iran promoting cultural events. But Iran booted it out in 2009 in response to the BBC’s creation of a Farsi language service broadcasting into Iran. The British Council said it does not have offices or representatives in Iran and does not work in Iran any more.
Amiri does work for the British Council. A spokeswoman told the BBC her “UK-focused” role involved connecting Iranian writers with translators. The spokeswoman said Amiri did not travel to Iran on British Council business.
She said the British Council had not had contact with Amiri since her arrest, which happened while she was visiting a family member.
At a news conference May 13, Esmaili said “an Iranian female student” who had been “in charge of the Iran desk at the British Council” had been sentenced.
“The person traveled to the country using a false name in order to implement, design, plan and lead various projects regarding the implementation of the cultural objectives of the old colonialism [UK] inside Islamic Iran,” he said.
“The person was involved in contacting theater and art groups to implement that very issue of cultural infiltration or cultural ambush.”
Esmaili said such actions “drew the attention of Iran’s security and intelligence services,” which led to the woman’s arrest last year.
Files presented at her trial showed she “very quickly and clearly confessed” to passing information to British intelligence agents, he said.
The British Council is the UK’s international organization working in arts and culture, English language instruction, education and civil society. It is a charity governed by Royal Charter and receives a funding grant from the UK government.
