UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said on Thursday he welcomed news that Iran had temporarily released Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian aid worker, from prison, but said she should not have been behind bars in the first place.
British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt speaks outside the United Nations Security Council prior to presiding over a meeting of the Council at U.N. headquarters in New York City, New York, U.S., August 23, 2018. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
“We want to thank the Iranian authorities for what theyre doing whilst not forgetting that she should not be in prison in the first place. Nazanin is innocent,” he said during a short briefing at the United Nations.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested in April 2016 at a Tehran airport and was sentenced to five years in jail. Irans envoy to Britain and her supporters earlier on Thursday said she had been released from detention for three days.
Hunt earlier in the day welcomed Zaghari-Ratcliffes release on Twitter.
Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Writing by Lisa Lambert; Editing by Jonathan Oatis
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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