Iran Frees British-Iranian Aid Worker Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Her Lawyer Says

Iranian-British aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is seen in an undated photograph handed out by her family. (Ratcliffe Family Handout via Reuters)
Iranian-British aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is seen in an undated photograph handed out by her family. (Ratcliffe Family Handout via Reuters)
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Iran Frees British-Iranian Aid Worker Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Her Lawyer Says

Iranian-British aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is seen in an undated photograph handed out by her family. (Ratcliffe Family Handout via Reuters)
Iranian-British aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is seen in an undated photograph handed out by her family. (Ratcliffe Family Handout via Reuters)

Iran has released British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, her lawyer Hojjat Kermani told Iranian website Emtedad on Sunday, after her five-year prison sentence for plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment.

“She was pardoned by Iran’s Supreme Leader last year, but spent the last year of her term under house arrest with electronic shackles tied to her feet. Now they’re cast off,” Kermani told the website. “She has been freed.”

Iran’s judiciary officials have yet to comment about the release.

It was not immediately clear whether she was allowed to leave Iran. Kermani was quoted as saying that “a hearing for Zaghari’s second case has been scheduled at branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran” according to the website.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested at a Tehran airport in April 2016 as she prepared to head back to Britain with her daughter after a family visit.

She was later sentenced to five years in jail after being convicted of plotting to overthrow Iran’s clerical establishment. Her family and the foundation, a charity that operates independently of media firm Thomson Reuters and its news subsidiary Reuters, deny the charge.

She was released from jail in March last year and put under house arrest in Tehran in response to concerns about the spread of COVID-19 in Iran’s prisons, but her movements were restricted and she was barred from leaving the country.



Ethiopia Says Controversial Power Dam on the Nile that's Opposed by Egypt Has Been Completed

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is pictured on 20 July 2020. (AFP)
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is pictured on 20 July 2020. (AFP)
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Ethiopia Says Controversial Power Dam on the Nile that's Opposed by Egypt Has Been Completed

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is pictured on 20 July 2020. (AFP)
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is pictured on 20 July 2020. (AFP)

Ethiopia’s prime minister said Thursday that his country’s controversial power dam on the Nile has been completed.

Egypt has long opposed the dam because of concerns it would deplete its share of Nile River waters. Egypt has referred to the dam, known as the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, as an existential threat because the Arab world’s most populous country relies almost entirely on the Nile to supply water for agriculture and its more than 100 million people.

Ethiopia disputes that suggestion.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said his government is “preparing for its official inauguration."

“While there are those who believe it should be disrupted before that moment, we reaffirm our commitment: the dam will be inaugurated,” he said, The AP news reported.

Abiy said in his address that his country “remains committed to ensuring that our growth does not come at the expense of our Egyptian and Sudanese brothers and sisters.”