Boris Johnson slams decision to jail Brit Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe for ANOTHER year in Iran and demands her UK return

BORIS Johnson has branded the decision to jail Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe for ANOTHER year in Iran as "cruel and inhumane" and has demanded for her to be returned to the UK.

The British-Iranian charity worker has also been banned from leaving the country for a year as well as being handed a 12-month prison sentence on charges of propaganda activities against the regime.

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Her lawyer Hojjat Kermani told reporters today: "Nazanin Zaghari was sentenced to one year in prison and one year ban from leaving the country on charges of propaganda against the Islamic Republic."

The 43-year-old was jailed in Tehran in 2016  on spying charges, which she has always denied.

She spent the last year of her ­five-year sentence under house arrest and her electronic ankle tag was removed in March.

But Nazanin was told she faced a new trial accused of "propaganda against the regime" and so was unable to travel back to the UK to be reunited with her husband Richard and young daughter Gabriella.

She has now been jailed for another year.

The Prime Minister took to Twitter to slam the latest sentence and has said the Government will do all it can to bring Nazanin back to the UK.

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"Iran's decision to sentence Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe to another year in prison is cruel, inhumane and wholly unjustified," Mr Johnson said.

"She must be allowed to return to her family in the UK and we will continue to do all we can to get her home."

The new sentence has also been condemned by Amnesty International UK, which described it as a "terrible setback".

Director Kate Allen said: “This is terrible news, and further proof of the incredible cruelty of the Iranian regime.

“It’s truly devastating for Nazanin, Richard and Gabriella. We fear that going back to jail will be almost too much for Nazanin to bear.

“Nazanin’s first trial in 2016 was grossly unfair - a typical Revolutionary Court sham trial on trumped-up national security-related charges.

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“After yet another sham trial and another harsh sentence it’s time, surely, for the UK government to say enough is enough.

“In the strongest terms possible, the Government must call on the Iranian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Nazanin and allow her to return home."

Ms Allen added that the "ball is back in the UK's court" and the Government needs to "respond firmly".

“This prolonging of Nazanin’s suffering has raised the odds to such a degree that the UK government must surely now act," she said.

“Today is a terrible setback - there’s no doubt about that.

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"But rest assured, the campaign to free Nazanin won’t end until she’s out of jail, out of the country, and sitting on a flight back to Britain.”

Nazanin was jailed in Iran on charges of plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment in 2016, after she had travelled to the country with her young daughter to visit her parents.

She was working as a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation – the charitable arm of the news agency - when she was arrested in Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport on April 3, 2016 - accused of planning to topple the regime.

At a secret trial in 2016, Nazanin was sentenced to five years in jail for "membership of organisations working against the Iranian state", and was let go last month.

In March, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab blasted Iran over its “cruel and inhumane” treatment of the mum after the fresh charges were brought against her.

He said it was “unacceptable and unjustifiable” to continue with a second “wholly arbitrary” case against her.

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Before the trial, Nazanin's husband, Richard Ratcliffe, who is in London with their daughter Gabriella, seven, said: “Her future remains uncertain, with all the stress that comes with that, but at least it is not a continually drawn out trial.”

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Boris Johnson had also urged Iran to "permanently" release Nazanin after she was released from jail in March so she could return to the UK to be reunited with her family.

The PM previously intervened in Nazanin's case when he visited Tehran in 2017 after he seriously slipped up during his stint as Foreign Secretary by wrongly telling Parliament that she had been in Iran to train journalists.