\u201cWhen I look at what Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was doing, she was simply teaching people journalism, as I understand it,\u201d<\/em> Johnson told a select committee last week. Following his comments, the 37-year-old woman was taken to an unscheduled court hearing in Iran, where Johnson\u2019s remarks were cited as proof of her guilt.<\/p>\n Read more<\/p>\n The charity worker, who was employed by the Thomson Reuters Foundation as a project manager, is already serving a five-year prison sentence. She now faces a further five years in jail on new charges of \u201cpropaganda against the regime.\u201d<\/em> Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been eligible for parole under the early-release scheme from November 23.<\/p>\n Tory trade secretary Liam Fox, however, has urged people not to overreact to Johnson\u2019s \u201cslip of the tongue.\u201d Speaking on BBC\u2019s Radio 4, he said: \u201cWe all make slips of the tongue, we\u2019ve got to very careful that we are not overreacting to this in a way that is going to give the Iranians [an excuse to extend the sentence].\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI think it is important we keep this in perspective \u2026 the point the Foreign Secretary was making was that this arrest and detention of a UK citizen is not acceptable,\u201d<\/em> he added.<\/p>\n Richard Ratcliffe, Zaghari-Ratcliffe\u2019s husband, has demanded Johnson provide answers over the blunder and \u201cretract\u201d<\/em> the remarks in Parliament. He maintains his wife was visiting family and is innocent.<\/p>\n Ratcliffe said the \u201cworst thing\u201d<\/em> Johnson could do now was \u201csuddenly go quiet and to create this problem without making any clarifications \u2026 You can\u2019t make a muddle and then leave it. That would be the worst of both worlds,\u201d<\/em> he told the BBC.<\/p>\n He said he still hoped his wife and young daughter would be back home in the UK for Christmas. Their daughter, who was just 18 months old when Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested, is still in Iran with family.<\/p>\n The government said Johnson would call Iran to avoid misrepresentation. Johnson\u2019s remarks \u201cprovide no justifiable basis on which to bring any additional charges against Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe,\u201d<\/em> a Foreign Office spokesperson said.<\/p>\n In a statement over the weekend, the Judiciary of the Islamic Republic of Iran said: \u201c[Johnson\u2019s] statement shows that Nazanin had visited the country for anything but a holiday. For months it was claimed that Nazanin is a British-Iranian charity worker who went to see her family when she was arrested.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201c\u2018She was simply going on holiday, making a routine visit with her daughter Gabriella to visit her parents living in Tehran,\u2019 the Guardian falsely claimed. Mr. Johnson\u2019s statement has shed a new light on the realities about Nazanin, which has been strongly denied previously by both her family and human-rights activists,\u201d<\/em> the Iranian judiciary concluded.<\/p>\n I have written to Boris Johnson in the strongest terms. He MUST correct what he said about Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe https:\/\/t.co\/rx6AJf4AM9<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Emily Thornberry (@EmilyThornberry) November 6, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n A serious blunder by @BorisJohnson<\/a> that could have dire ramifications for Nazanin Ratcliffe, British mum held in an Iranian jail. He said she was ‘training journalists in Iran’. She was not, and was actually on holiday. Statement from Thomson Reuters Foundation: @foreignoffice<\/a>pic.twitter.com\/BhmX2dZWSM<\/a><\/p>\n
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