Anoosheh Ashoori, the British-Iranian dual national held in Evin prison in Tehran for more than four years, has had his request for conditional release and an appeal against his 10-year sentence thrown out, according to The Guardian.
Ashoori faces a conviction for spying on Iran, which he denies.
He was told that the court had rejected the appeal against his sentence some months earlier, but he was only informed at the weekend.
Ashoori’s daughter, Elika, said “the loss of his conditional release appeal means we have now exhausted all avenues and hopes of having our father back with us.”
"The fate of our family is at the mercy of the UK government. They are the ones who will decide whether we see our dad in the near future or when he is an old man in his 70s having wasted a decade of his life in a dirty vermin-infected jail,” Elika added.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has written to the family to say the case is still being examined.
Ashoori’s wife, Sherry Izadi, said the Iranians have openly linked the release of British dual nationals to the payment of a £400m debt owed to Iran by the British government arising from a deal for Chieftain tanks in the 1970s.
"The settlement of this debt has become so monumentally important to the Iranians that they justify their actions by arguing it is other countries that are holding Iranian assets hostage,” Izadi added.
